One Last Chance
by Solstice Muse
Summary: In one day...Ron's whole life, if Hermione can manage to change things the second time around that is. A co written fic by myself and The Steppy One as The Muskmelons. AU fic written pre Deathly Hallows
1. Chapter 1 Ron

**One Last Chance**

**by The Muskmelons**

**aka Solstice Muse and The Steppy One**

I was waiting for Hermione to come back from her meeting with the Gringotts Goblins.

Sure, everybody expected Harry and maybe even McGonagall to be left something in the old nutter's will but for Hermione to get a mention was very weird, indeed. It also made me wonder why I was left out.

I'm always left out, unless there's a novel way to get hurt. I'm good at that.

Harry was still recuperating from the final battle in St Mungo's. We were going to have breakfast and then scoot over to say hello and see how much the Minister for Magic had pissed him off today. I did find it hard not to laugh when he showed me the proposed 'Ministry Approved' article that was to adorn the front page of the _Daily Prophet_ today.

_'Harry Potter Integral to Ministry's Defeat of You-Know-Who'_

Integral.

Sorry, I'm laughing again. I can't help it.

_'Ronald Weasley's Lungs Integral to Body's Ability to Breathe'_

Harry apparently suggested the amendment:

_'Harry Potter...Succeeds Despite Idiocy of Ministry'_

Hermione and I liked that one. The Minister didn't think much of it. Today's headline says something about the minister staging a press conference this afternoon but the people wanted to hear from the 'Saviour of the Wizarding World' and not some incompetent politician. The incompetent politician bit will cheer Harry up, I don't doubt. The thing about the people wanting more of Harry's soul won't do his mood swings a hell of a lot of good though.

I don't blame him, of course. It must feel awful to have a whole society feel they own you and place expectations on you all the time. It's days like this I'm glad nobody expects anything from me.

Nobody.

Not a body.

I looked at my watch and huffed as I realised Hermione had been an hour being remembered in Dumbledore's will.

I'm not bitter. I only took a fatal poisoning for the man.

* * *

Right, Hermione's really acting weird now.

I don't know what went on up there, but she's gone do-lally!

One minute she's happy to see me, the next she's all cool and distant. She was in and out of Gringotts a bit before telling me it was none of my business what Dumbledore left her.

Well, I can see her point. I'm only one of her very best friends. I only spent the past year sleeping rough with her and Harry while facing off against the most dangerous and powerful witches and wizards around. I'm sure if _I_ had been called into a secret meeting inside Dumbledore's personal vault, she wouldn't have a single question to ask me.

She's the kind of girl who will cuddle you one minute and look at you like you're crap on the sole of her shoe the next.

I was ordering our teas and toasted crumpets while she hunched over something, trying to hide it behind her hair. So she wants to keep it a secret from me? That's fine. Maybe she thinks I'm not mature enough to handle having two rich best friends while I barely have enough to pay for our tea and crumpets. I've matured. I don't care if she's rich now.

Money isn't everything. I've never had it so I can happily live without it. Never had it, never miss it.

"There you go," I said as I set her tea down and made her jump.

"Oh thank you Ron," she blinked and looked into the cup with some degree of surprise. "You didn't over milk it."

"Well, I've known you long enough by now to know how you like your tea, haven't I?" I huffed as I sat down.

"I didn't say that. I just..." Hermione reigned herself in and forced a smile onto her face. "Thank you Ron. Where are the crumpets?"

"The cafe house-elves are bringing them when they're done," I waved my hand over my shoulder before realising that I'd just put my great size nine foot in it again.

"_What_? Too exhausting to carry two small plates of muffins over here for yourself is it?" Hermione said, looking greatly affronted.

"They told me to take a seat, I didn't ask!" I protested, defensively.

"I bet you put up a real fight on the house-elves' behalf, didn't you?" she said with a sarcastic expression on her face.

"Oh bloody hell, Hermione," I said, rather too loudly I admit. "It isn't as if I asked them to weave me a napkin out of strands of gold. I asked for crumpet and they told me to sit down!"

A couple of young witches sitting at a corner table began to giggle into their frothy coffees. I looked at them as if they were off their rockers. It always makes me uneasy to hear a pair of witches giggling in the same way Lavender and Parvati used to do.

"Thank you, Ronald," Hermione said, her tones clipped, "make it sound like you think you're in a brothel, why don't you?"

"Well, I don't know what Dumbledore left you in his will but I'm damned sure it wasn't his chilled-out personality!" I huffed just as a house-elf appeared with our crumpets and bowed low to the ground before placing them on the table and shuffling away, still in the bowing position.

"No, don't leave," Hermione called after the elf, who immediately sprang upright and bounced over to attend to Hermione's request. "Here," she said happily as she pulled a silver Sickle out of her pocket and held it out to the elf, "this is for your trouble."

"Oh no, Miss," the horrified elf said, backing away from the coin as if fearing it would turn them to stone at the merest touch. "I is not wanting payment. Your pleasure at my work is payment enough."

"But I will get pleasure to know you received fair payment for your hard work," Hermione persisted.

"Is not hard to serve kind missus and misters like yous twos. Payment is an insult. I won't disgrace myself with taking your moneys, Miss."

"Give it a rest, Hermione," I said wearily, casting the poor distressed elf a pitying look.

The petrified thing almost clung to my leg when it saw I wasn't with Hermione on the payment idea.

"Things will never change unless we persevere," she said fiercely before straightening up and saying haughtily. "I order you to take this money from me and use it for yourself."

The elf looked ready to vomit.

"That's abuse that is!" I found myself declaring. "You're abusing the obedience of this poor little...what's your name?"

"I is Grottle sir," the house-elf said, looking at me as if I was his salvation.

"Grottle here doesn't care if you've just inherited a fortune and want to show it off in front of us lesser mortals. Leave the poor sod alone!"

Yeah, I know that was out of order. I know she didn't mean anything nasty by what she was trying to do. I don't have a problem with her windfall, I really don't, and I felt like shit to see her face fall and her eyes shine as if I'd just beheaded Crookshanks for larks. I was a git but she really doesn't help matters when she gets all difficult and _'always right-y'_.

I am also aware that _'always right-y'_ isn't a real expression...and I don't care.

"How dare...How could you say...?" Hermione was almost speechless.

Almost speechless is never good. The almost side of that state of shock only reminds you that the speech is indeed coming and you will soon be reduced to nothing more than a heartless, selfish, self-pitying git.

I saw her coming back to herself and sat back, resigned to my well-deserved ear-bashing.

"I know you are sensitive about your financial situation, Ronald, but that was an awful thing to say to me, and in public too!"

I looked at the house-elf. He looked like he felt sorry for me while being somewhat pleased that Hermione was no longer focused upon him at all. I shrugged; Grottle shrugged back.

"...aren't even listening to me are you?"

"I agree with you completely, Hermione. Money isn't everything and I am eternally wrong while you are all things right and not at all moody and unpredictable this morning."

Oh that did it. She was going to blow.

"What on earth is that supposed to mean?" she demanded.

I swallowed.

"I'm sorry," I said edgily.

"For what?" Hermione said, clenching her jaw.

"For...everything...ever!" I said, trying not to sound as if I was deliberately winding her up.

"Ron, you have been acting strange ever since I came out of that meeting at Gringotts. What has got into you?" Hermione demanded.

My fault. This is now my fault. Her mood swings are all my fault. The plight of the house-elves is my fault. The fact that those giggling witches were giggling even more was all my fault. There were only two ways to go: continue arguing with her until we reached out usual explosive finale and ruined Harry's no doubt already stress-filled day, or show her how it feels to have somebody run hot and cold with you.

I taught her a lesson.

I leaned over the table, crumpet pressing against my jumper and smearing butter all over it, and put my hand around the back of her head. Just as she opened her mouth in shock, I clamped my own over hers and kissed her.

She didn't do a hell of a lot of kissing back. Well, not for the first little lunges of my tongue. Then she began to join in a bit. By that time, I needed to take a breath so I broke the kiss and gasped for air.

"I really like you, too..." I said with a sincere nod.

Then her eyes looked betrayed and she shoved me away.

"You think that's funny, do you?" she said, refusing to meet my eyes any more, "Contrary to popular myth, when a woman tells you you're an insufferable prat it sometimes simply means you are an insufferable prat!"

I flung myself back in my chair and gave up on a bad job. The house-elf was going for a discreet escape. If I was in the doghouse, then that little bastard was coming with me.

"Oi, you," I called out to Grottle, "get back here and take her bloody money. Us lesser beings should be grateful when the important people in this world throw us a scrap of hope from time to time."

Hermione glared at me. I gestured for Grottle to come back and he reluctantly scampered back to cower at my chair.

"Y'see, I have no money to force upon you for the sake of my own ego, Grotty, and I don't have a high enough opinion of myself to preach to you until you rip off your own feet just so you have something to stuff into your ears, but I do have the ability to love," I said with so much sarcasm I shocked even myself. "So dear tormented house-elf, in exchange for you bringing me a toasted crumpet on a plate, I hereby adopt you as my son and I christen you...Ron Junior!"

Grottle looked as if his head was about to explode. Hermione looked as if she wanted mine to explode with it.

"I was going to confide what Dumbledore left to me with you _in private_ but seeing as all you care about is money and humiliating me in public, you can take your crumpet and shove i-"

"Sir and Miss, please!" Grottle screeched as he jumped up onto the table, beating himself on the head with his hands. "Grottle is sorry if he did wrong and caused the nasty shouting. Grottle is punishing himself. See Grottle punished Sir? Miss?"

Hermione rose from her chair and stared down at me as if I was a total stranger to her.

"Sometimes you make it impossible to be your friend, Ronald Weasley."

I watched her march off and fought the urge to throw the buttered crumpets at the stupid giggling witches behind me.

* * *

_A/N This chapter and all chapters from Ron's POV are written by Solstice Muse. The chapters written in Hermione's POV (as the next one will be) are written by The Steppy One._

_You can visit her profile on this site (she is under favourite authors on my profile) and leave her PMs as reviews for her chapters if you choose but be assured that I will pass on all reviews left to her chapters to her. We agreed that this be posted under my pen name as I have the higher number of people with me on alert._

_Thanks to Deena for betaing this fic._


	2. Chapter 2 Hermione

**Chapter Two**

**by ****The Steppy One**

I cannot believe him sometimes!

There was absolutely no need for him to act like that. Merlin! A four-year-old has better manners than him!

He knows how I feel about house-elves; all he had to do was bring the sodding crumpets to the table. How difficult is that?

And then he has the audacity to bring money into the situation! Like that's my fault!

I carried on down the street towards the Leaky Cauldron. There was no way I was hanging around to shop today; the pouring rain doesn't do much for the desire to go shopping. Plus, there's the fact we're supposed to be seeing Harry in ten minutes. That's going to be so much fun!

Is he even following me? He'd better bloody well had be! That argument was entirely his fault. Well…almost.

Okay, I admit, I can get a bit over the top about the rights of house-elves but there was no need to behave like troll with its brain removed!

I steal a quick glance over my shoulder and don't see him. _Where the hell is he?_ Hasn't he grasped the concept of running after his best friend when she's upset? Best friend…friend…girl…who he's known for years and still can't read right. I thought we understood each other, apparently not!

And as for this will matter, of course I was going to tell him, like I wouldn't! I was going to tell both him and Harry when we got to the hospital. I still will...probably.

I looked over my shoulder again and to my satisfaction saw a flash of red hair. Why he didn't have his hood up in this weather, I don't know.

_Should I stop and wait for him? _I already know the answer to this. Yes, I should. My pace slowed and I turned around. His hands were in his pockets and his hair was plastered against his forehead. I watched as he walked closer to me…and then right past me.

I tut loudly and set off after him.

'Ron!' I called to his back.

He raised his head and looked over his shoulder. His eyes widen in shock at the sight of me.

I walked up to him. 'Is there a reason why you just ignored me?' I half shouted at him. The rain was getting heavier.

'Yes!' he replied. 'I didn't bloody well see you, that's why! I was trying to keep the rain out of my eyes by looking at the ground. Is that alright with you?'

'You could have put your hood up! Then you wouldn't have needed to stare intently at the ground.'

He mumbled something.

'What was that?' I asked.

He sighed, obviously irritated. 'I said, I look stupid with a hood up.'

'Well, I don't look great with mine up but when it's pouring with rain I tend to take the option that will keep me dry!'

'Well, it's my choice to not take that option, isn't it? Now, is there a reason why we've stopped walking or can we get to the hospital before I catch pneumonia and need to stay there for a week?'

I opened my mouth to tell him exactly why we'd stopped but before I had the chance to say anything, he started talking again.

'Good. Let's go.'

He turned on his heel and started walking away from me. I watched him for a few seconds to see if he was going to make sure I was following him. He didn't. I don't know what annoyed me more, the fact that he was that arrogant that he thought I'd follow him no matter what, or the fact that I knew I was going to follow him, no matter what.

I set off after him at a slight jog. Lightening had just filled the sky and I knew the second wave of torrential rain was about to fall around me.

* * *

I was squashed in the corner of the pub but not by choice. Because of the rain, everyone had decided to take shelter in the pub, which made getting through it and out onto the Muggle street pretty damn difficult.

'Do you want to have a drink before we go to the hospital?' Ron shouted at me, over the din of the pub.

'Ron! It's nine 9 o'clock in the morning! I can't believe you want to have a drink now!'

He sighed and rolled his eyes. 'I didn't mean an alcoholic drink; I meant something to warm us through. I don't know about you but I'm freezing my bo--'

'All right! I get the picture!'

I looked around; as much as the thought of a hot chocolate was quite desirable at that moment, I didn't fancy my chances of getting to the bar before midday.

'I think we'll be a while getting them, don't you?'

Ron took a look around him then shrugged. 'Suppose. Come on then.'

I think by habit more than anything, he took my wrist and helped steer me through the crowd. The independent part of my brain was telling me I should be annoyed that he decided I couldn't make my own way through the crowd, but the slightly fed up and sensitive part of my brain was glad that he wanted to make sure I got through the crowd in one piece.

We eventually made it out the front door of the pub and I pulled the hood of my cloak over my head. I looked at Ron and sighed when he refused to do the same.

'Don't you be thinking I'm going to visit you in hospital if you do catch pneumonia! It'll be your own fault!'

He didn't reply, he just scowled.

'You know we could just Apparate from right here, you know!'

'Ron, we're in a Muggle street!'

'Yes, thank you Hermione, I know exactly where we are, but they can't see the pub. They can't even see us standing here!'

'There is an Apparition point two minutes walk from here. If you can't be bothered putting your hood up against the rain, then that's your problem. We are going to walk that Apparition point!'

I set off at a march. Thankfully, the rain hadn't worsened and had even started to lessen slightly.

A smirk crossed my face when I heard Ron splashing through the street behind me, but it disappeared when the footsteps hurried past me and I realised it wasn't Ron.

_Don't you dare look behind!_

I tried to listen to the voice in my head but my neck muscles seemed to be ignoring it completely.

_Stop it!_

My pace quickened and I carried on down the street.

I turned the corner and looked up at the small sign that was hanging at the very end of the street. To any Muggle reading it, it was a sign showing the way to the nearest bus stop, but to witches and wizards it was a sign stating this was an official, Ministry Approved Apparition Point.

I stood under the sign and turned round, waiting for Ron. I tried to ignore the disappointment I felt when I couldn't see him. I managed it until the frustration took over. I could always go without him, I suppose.

I was spared having to make that decision when he came around the corner. When he wasn't too far away, I called out to him.

'In your own time!'

'Thanks,' he replied. 'I will.'

I scowled at him and he pulled a forced smile, trying to wind me up.

'Ready?' he asked in a sing-song voice.

'Yes,' I replied, still scowling.

'Good.'

He was still pulling his forced smile as he turned on the spot and disappeared from sight.

* * *

'Where are you going?' I demanded of him when he turned and walked in the opposite direction of where the hospital was.

He sighed and turned back around to face me. His hair was still flat against his forehead, and his hands were stuffed in his jeans pockets.

'I'm getting a _Prophet_, if you must know.'

He turned to the small stall that was selling the daily paper and a variety of Wizarding magazines. The owner of the stall did a good business being right outside the hospital. Whether or not the patients inside the hospital liked to read about the events they were missing whilst in the large building, their friends and relatives would always presume they'd want to know every detail. They received a paper whether they wanted one or not.

I watched as he fell into fits of giggles as he read the headline. The seller started to laugh with him and they fell into an easy conversation. Over the past few days, they had exchanged many a word, most of which had been rude.

I shivered violently and glared at Ron. _Merlin he could talk!_

He pulled his payment out of his pocket and handed it to the seller.

_Finally!  
_  
I pulled my hood down as the rain had all but stopped. Ron said his goodbyes to his kindred spirit and pushed the paper inside his cloak so it wouldn't get wet. As he stepped up next to me I shivered.

'Not cold are we, Hermione? You should have put your hood up!'

He walked past me with an annoying smirk on his face. I caught up to him and was about to give him a piece of my mind when he started talking to the dummy in the window of the hospital.

'Ron Weasley and a very cold Hermione Granger to see Harry Potter.'

My jaw dropped but I shut my mouth fast enough when he turned to look at me.

'You're not funny, Ron!'

'Well, Jack over there disagrees with you. He thinks I'm hilarious!'

'What were you laughing at anyway?'

'Oh, I couldn't possibly tell you that!'

'Why not!' I screeched.

Ron turned to look at the dummy in the window and nodded at it. Without saying another word, he stepped through the glass and left me standing alone in the street.

I growled in frustration and followed him through the glass.

The warmth that hit me was a huge comfort. I took my wet cloak off and hung it over my arm. I looked ahead and saw Ron was still wearing his, dripping rain all over the floor as he went through the reception area.

'He hasn't even noticed!' I hissed under my breath. _Merlin, he was so infuriating!  
_  
He had stopped to talk to someone, or rather, someone had stopped him to question him. Ron was trying to be polite and excuse himself without seeming rude. No doubt, this person was trying to get any information about how the Hero of the Wizarding World, namely Harry, was doing in his hospital bed upstairs.

Ron flashed the elderly wizard his most charming smile and despite the annoyance I felt at him, I melted ever-so-slightly. _How the hell does he do that?  
_  
He glanced at me as the smile was fading, but I found myself raising a smile at him. I couldn't help it, that smile was infectious!

'Did he ask about Harry?'

'Well, he wasn't asking about me!'

He turned and took a step forward, but the water that had dripped off his coat had collected in a pool around him. The next thing I knew, I was being pulled down to the floor, and I landed, closely entwined with Ron, in a heap on the ground.

'Oww!' I exclaimed!

I heard hysterical laughter around me; whoever was laughing at our misfortune was going to get an earful, whoever they were, whether ill or perfectly healthy! I twisted my head to find the culprit, only to find out it was the person who got me in this embarrassing situation in the first place.

Despite the pain in my back, I scrambled to my feet and glared at Ron. I could feel the eyes of everyone around us on me and I grew hot from embarrassment. I snatched my cloak off the floor and stormed through the double doors that led to the staircase.

After a few seconds, the giggles caught up with me.

'Ah, come on Hermione, it was funny!'

'Funny! FUNNY! Ron that is the second time you have embarrassed me in as many hours! If it's not kissing me in a coffee shop it's pulling me to the ground in the hospital!'

'It wasn't my fault!' he replied, the smile fading from his face. 'The floor was wet! How is that my fault!'

'If you'd bother to realise how soaking wet your cloak is Ron, you'd have noticed you were the one who made the puddle on the floor! So you only have yourself to blame, as do I!'

He looked down at his cloak and watched as a drip landed on the floor.

'Oh,' he muttered.

I smirked at him and turned round. I ascended the stairs to the floor Harry was on and pushed my way through the double doors.

As much as Harry's mood was prone to very sudden change, it would be a relief from the insensitivity that I had endured all morning.

* * *


	3. Chapter 3 Ron

**Chapter Three**

**by Solstice Muse**

I pondered on whether or not I should buy Harry some chocolate from the sundries booth in reception. Glancing up at Hermione, I realised I'd probably already wasted too much time lagging behind.

I'd done it, in part, to make a point that she can't just treat me like crap and keep expecting me to follow her blindly. I'd also been genuinely distracted by a strange old woman offering to tell me my fortune. I could see me telling Hermione about that.

As little as I think of all that Divination stuff, I know she values it even less despite how accurate Trelawney's two genuine predications turned out to be. But it was still a bit more than just a scam artist wanting me to cross her palm with silver.

The old hag had been really insistent that she didn't want money; she just wanted me to listen.

Now that was unsettling.

But I was getting wet, in the doghouse seven or eight times over and losing sight of Hermione so I had to take off.

That had been when the hag had called after me, called my name. I hadn't told her my name. I tried to shake it off as nothing more than my magical upbringing clouding my reality. It was just like all that Grim stuff. See a black dog and you're gonna die...yeah, right! Old hag tells you she's come to save your life? Well sure, whatever you say, love. I had a teacher who'd tell Harry he was a dead man every time she saw him and the bloke I'm popping upstairs to see is still very much alive.

Hermione had taken time out of her busy 'glaring at me as if I'm a walking turd' schedule to push open the doors to Harry's private ward and disappear inside with her usual bustle.

He'd be able to tell we'd been fighting, Hermione and me, he always could and he hates it. Blimey, I don't like it myself; I don't go looking for tension with her.

"Mr Weasley," a soft voice said as slight little fingers gripped my arm and pulled me back.

"Huh?" I blinked as I found myself dragged into a nearby doorway.

It was a hunching figure, smaller than me and completely covered from head to toe with St Mungo's Healer robes, the face of whoever it was hidden behind one of those hygiene masks, and all I could relate to was the bridge of a nose and a female voice.

"I'm afraid there's been a problem with a highly contagious infection on this floor and you're going to have to go into quarantine for twenty four hours. Here, come with me."

The hand pulled me and the shrouded Healer tried to open the door we were standing beside. It was locked.

"You what? But..." I pointed to Harry's still open door, where my two best mates were waiting for me.

"Oh bother!" the Healer muttered as she pulled out her wand and tried several unlocking charms with no success.

I looked up and down the corridor and pondered calling out for Hermione to give me a hand.

"Well, no matter," the Healer said, sounding flustered, "we'll try the quarantine area next door, shall we?"

The witch dragged me across to the next door and flung it open. We both stared at the mop and bucket in total silence. The 'Healer' dropped her head and her shoulders slumped. I patted her on the shoulder sympathetically.

"Are you maybe a bit lost?" I asked as gently as I could.

The witch nodded silently.

"Did you go for a walk from your...special ward?" I said, trying to not say lunatic or nutter or any kind of trigger word that would set the wacko off.

"No!" the witch snapped sharply, making me jump a little, her grip tightened and she tried to shove me into the mop cupboard.

"Oi, what is your problem? Why are you picking on me?" I huffed.

"You're infected and you need to be locked away for twenty-four hours. Now do as you're told, Mr Weasley!" the fierce voice hissed.

"How do you know my bloody name?" I said, shoving my way back out of the tiny cupboard and finding myself shoved flat against the wall by the woman's shaking hands.

"If I don't lock you away until tomorrow, you could die!" the shrouded figure said, her voice ragged as if she was crying.

I slumped against the wall and hugged the half-baked escapee from the spell-damage ward to my chest wearily. She clung on to me like there was no tomorrow. Well, to her there wasn't going to be, not ever. My dad had told me about this. So many people survived the war that thought they weren't going to. They'd all prepared themselves to die, lived on the edge of death for years, and now that they were safe they had no idea how to wind down. The anxiety, the fear that there would be no tomorrow for them, they couldn't let it go.

"You know what?" I said softly to the sobbing witch in my arms.

All the woman did was sniff so I continued.

"I'll go into that ward for my quarantine," I nodded over to Harry's open door. I thought I saw a shadow quickly moving and hoped that meant Hermione was about to appear to save me from this clinch with a nut-job, "and you come and sit with me to make sure I don't...run off or something. We'll pull the rope thingy to call for another Healer and we'll both talk to her about this quarantine thing, okay?"

The small figure pushed away from me and took a step back. She whimpered and turned to run away from me. All I could make out as she set off was a sob and two words.

"I'm sorry."


	4. Chapter 4 Hermione

**Chapter Four**

**by The Steppy One**

'So what have you been fighting about this time?' Harry asked me with an annoyed stare.

I had come into the ward minus Ron and had no idea where he was. So I said good mornings to Harry without him. I had asked how he was feeling and managed to keep my mind with his conversation for a few minutes before he had asked his latest question. Damn he was good, or was I just that bad at hiding what was on my mind?

'Why do you think...he's not even...I...'

Merlin Hermione, get your brain in gear!

'How did you know we'd been fighting?' I asked in a mumble. There really was no point in trying to deny we hadn't been fighting.

'Hermione, how long have we been friends? For starters, you're all hot and bothered. Secondly, you've hardly said two words since you came in the ward ---you're obviously thinking about something else. And thirdly, you were supposed to come and visit me together. Well, at the minute you're one person short of being able to call yourselves 'together'.'

I sighed in annoyance, frustration, and a few other things thrown in for good measure.

'So, back to my original question, what have you been fighting about this time?'

I thought for a second, what _had_ we been fighting about...oh yes...

I was about to start talking when the doors banged open and Ron walked through them looking slightly pale and with a concerned look on his face.

'What's wrong?' I asked him as he sat down.

He sat down, realised he was squashing the paper under his robes and took it out before damaging it any further.

'You alright, mate?' he asked Harry.

I wasn't sure if he was avoiding my question or just being polite to Harry before answering it.

'Answer Hermione's question,' Harry said with a concerned look in his eyes. Obviously, he thought Ron was avoiding my question.

'Nothing really, just...some witch from the...not-quite-right-in-the-head ward escaped and was wandering around out in the stairwell. She was upset and...she somehow knew my name. Just...weird...bit unnerving.'

'Where is she now?' I asked quietly.

'She ran away after a few minutes. Not sure where she went. I hope she's alright, maybe I should have gone after her.'

Before I knew what I was doing I reached over and squeezed his hand, which was resting on his knee.

'If you'd gone after her, she probably would have panicked more. She won't have gone far, and she can't leave the hospital. They have sensors for that.'

'Yeah, I know.'

He gave my hand a quick squeeze, and it's then that I became conscious of where it was. After a second, I pulled it back and leant forward in my chair and rested my head on my clasped hands. Ron ran his through his hair and slumped back in his chair.

'So, you didn't answer my question, Harry. How are you?'

Harry shrugged in a bored way.

'Well, I got the feeling back in another finger over night. Woke up it was stinging so badly. I hate pins and needles!'

'More than not being able to feel your arm?' Ron replied with a smirk.

I smiled with him but then realised where this conversation might lead. I changed the subject as soon as possible.

'So, when do you think you'll be allowed to leave, Harry?'

He shrugged again; he was answering far too many questions with non-committal shrugs.

'Dunno really. Couple of weeks if I'm lucky, if not, could be months.'

'I doubt you'll be in here that long, Harry. If you put your mind to it, you could be out of here in a very short time.'

As soon as I said the words I knew there was a chance he'd take them the wrong way.

'Are you saying if I'm in here for longer than that, then it's my fault? Because in some strange way my subconscious mind doesn't want to get out of here?'

Yeah, that was what I thought he'd think I meant.

'She didn't say anything of the sort, mate,' Ron replied.

I was slightly shocked at his instant defence of me. Then again, I don't know why. He has a habit of doing that, especially when I least expect him to.

'Harry, you know I didn't mean anything like that. I just want you to try and stay...well...positive. I know how depressing this place is and I want you to get out of here as soon as possible. I miss you, _we_ miss you.'

He looked up at Ron and then at me and sighed.

'Sorry,' he mumbled. 'You're right; this place is just...getting to me, that's all. If it's not people peering at me from over the top of their _Prophets_ after ignoring me for the rest of the day, it's people staring at me through the glass in the doors.'

'Talking of the _Prophet_,' Ron said, reaching over to the paper he had dropped on Harry's bed earlier and throwing it up the bed.

Harry picked up the paper and unfolded it; he stifled a giggle when his eyes travelled down to the bottom third of the page.

'What does it say?' I asked, having not seen the paper before Ron saved it from the rain.

Harry cleared his throat in a dramatic way and took a deep breath.

'_'Hot Harlots' demand Harry Potter is made Minister for Magic!_'

The _who_? Who were...? Ah yes, the oh-so-talented magical singing group who liked to be political with their lyrics.

'So that's why you nearly wet yourself with laughter outside!' I said to Ron.

He smirked. 'That and other things.'

Obviously I wasn't allowed to know about those _other_ things.

'I can't believe _that_ made the front page of the _Prophet_!' I remarked scathingly.

'Well, they are considered a very strong political voice in the Wizarding community. People take them seriously!' Ron replied.

'How anyone can take a group of singers called '_The Hot Harlots'_ seriously I have no idea. The name doesn't exactly give the impression that politics is the top of their agenda, does it?'

Harry grinned at me.

'Hey, listen to this!' Harry said, still grinning.

'_The group released a statement which said that as well as having demonstrated the skill of wizards five times his age, Harry Potter also has wisdom in vast quantities and more importantly, boyish good looks which could charm the--'_

Harry stopped talking and Ron looked crestfallen.

'Why've you stopped?' Ron asked in a screech.

'Because _they_ did! Apparently their exact words weren't suitable for front page articles in the _Prophet_!'

Ron grinned.

'So they do have _some_ limit on what they're prepared to print then!' I said.

Ron frowned at me. 'Well, they do have a point.'

'About what? Do his boyish good looks do it for you, Ron?' I asked with a smirk.

Ron instantly reddened and I allowed myself to giggle at the fact that I'd embarrassed him.

'Not about _that_!'

'Cheers mate!' Harry said, pretending to be offended.

'You can shut up!' he replied at Harry before turning back to me. 'I meant the other stuff.'

'You think Harry's up to running the Ministry of Magic, do you?'

'Yeah why not?'

I looked at Harry. 'No offence Harry, but I hardly think anyone who is barely twenty years old would be able to be head of the Wizarding community with a great deal of success, however many dark wizards and witches they've fought.'

'He'd do better than the pillock who's in charge now!' Ron retorted, obviously determined not to lose this argument.

'Yes, he probably would, but that's not saying a great deal, is it?'

'To be fair, I think Dobby'd be a better Minister for Magic than he would!' Harry added.

I smiled. However, I then remembered this morning and the way Ron had behaved in the coffee shop. Then I remembered why we'd been arguing. I glanced over at Ron and could practically see the same train of thought run through his mind, like it had done mine. I waited for the obvious question to come out of his mouth.

'You still haven't told me what happened this morning,' he said with quite a bit of frustration.

Well, not a question, but still, the obvious thing to be said.

'I know I haven't. I thought it would be better to tell the both of you at the same time and in private. If you remember Ron, I told you that this morning after you'd publicly embarrassed me, and yourself for that matter.'

'What happened this morning?' Harry asked.

'Nothing,' Ron mumbled. 'Its not important.'

Harry sighed. I knew he was annoyed about us not telling him what had got us so annoyed with each other, but he seemed to swallow his anger.

'So are you going to tell us what happened at Gringotts then?' Ron asked.

'Yes I will. But before I do, I have to give you this, Harry.' I reached into my robes and pulled out a small envelope with Harry's name on the front.

'What is it?' he asked.

'I think it's a letter telling you the time when they would like you to go and collect the things Dumbledore left you. There's only a few things, trinkets really. They were declared in the meeting this morning and as you nominated me as your representative, I was given that to give to you.'

'Oh right. What...er...what did he leave me?:'

I saw sadness fill his eyes.

'As I said, just a few things. A few books, his Pensieve--I know you've had it for a while, but it's officially yours now. Er...I can't remember what else, I think it tells you in there.'

'Okay, I'll have a look at it later.'

I took a deep breath and looked at Ron and Harry. They were both looking at me, only Harry was better at hiding his impatience then Ron.

'He left most of his stuff to Hogwarts, to be used in lessons and such, his books are to be added to the library apart from the few he gave Harry and a few other people. He lived at Hogwarts, so there was no estate as such to leave to anyone. That was everything.'

'What about his--' I looked at Ron and but he seemed to be having an internal battle as to whether he should finish his question or not.

'What about his what?' I asked, slightly annoyed that I had been interrupted.

'What about his gold?' Ron mumbled quietly.

I sighed but decided to answer the question...well as best as I could anyway. I hadn't really been listening at that point.

'I'm not sure, to be honest. I was still reeling slightly from what I'd been told...and given.'

'What was it, Hermione?' Harry asked kindly.

'He...he left me--'

'Sorry to interrupt, Mister Potter, but it's time for your daily medication.'

The three of us collectively sighed at the interruption from the formidable Mediwitch who had just walked into Harry's cubicle.

'Can't it wait half an hour?' Harry said, obviously annoyed. 'We've got important things to discuss!'

'I doubt anything's more important than getting you better, Mister Potter.'

She walked behind Ron and up to the top of Harry's bed. Harry sagged down against his pillows and scowled.

'Here's your--'

The Mediwitch had held out a small bottle of potion for Harry to drink and before she'd had the chance to tell him what he was about to take he'd downed it in one go. His eye twitched as he gave her back the bottle.

'Right,' the Mediwitch said after she'd taken the bottle from him. 'What's next?'

'I know which order I have to take them in if you want to leave them with me. I've done it enough times already. You can get on with other things.'

The Mediwitch was unconvinced with Harry's offer and insisted on staying until Harry had finished every last potion, and there was eight in total. Finally after what seemed like hours, she left.

'Sorry about that,' Harry mumbled. His left eye was still twitching, causing him to wink every few seconds.

'You all right there, mate? Your eye's making me think you've taken a fancy to me.'

'Ha bloody ha! It's a side-effect of the first potion, whichever one it is. Taking the rest with it doesn't help. Carry on, Hermione.'

I tried to hide my slight amusement at Harry's eye-twitching, but it soon disappeared as I relived what had happened in the meeting in my head.

'Well...as I was trying to say, Dumbledore left me one thing. It was a huge surprise he'd left me anything at all, but to leave me something like that...'

I trailed off. I was still coming to terms with the information myself. It was...strange to say the least.

'Hermione, are you doing this on purpose?' Harry asked.

I snapped out of my thoughts.

'No, sorry. Well, Dumbledore left me...the one and only remaining Time Turner.'

* * *

_A/N Well hi! *waves*_

_Steppy here, just wanted to say a quick hello and thanks for the reviews for this fic._

_A few people have been a little confused so I'm just going to try and un-confuse you..._

__

We wrote this the November before Deathly Hallows came out, so it is not DH complient, but is HBP complient, so all the stuff we learnt about Dumbledore's will in DH we ignore, because we didn't know about it, obviously...

As for those utterly confused by anything else plot wise, well you now know there's a Time Turner involved and therefore it's a Time Turner fic... Hope that helps the confusion... lol

_No, seriously, all will become clear, promise, we're just gonna let you squirm a little in the confusion for a bit, 'cause really, that's what we like to do! _

_Thanks for reading, I promise, it really will become clear._

_Ta, Step _


	5. Chapter 5 Ron

**Chapter Five**

**by Solstice Muse**

"But why do you need another Time-Turner?" I blinked at Hermione.

"Yeah," Harry said with a frown, "didn't you give the other one back because it was too much to deal with?"

Hermione pressed her lips together so hard that they were almost white. I looked at Harry and we both prepared to be shouted at for whatever reason. She didn't shout; she let her breath out and slumped in her chair.

"It's not like my old Time-Turner. This one is for emergency use only and Dumbledore entrusted it with me, to use at my discretion, because he knew he had already explained all the dos and don'ts thoroughly."

"And because he trusts you not to be an idiot with it," Harry smiled, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Hermione seemed to be quite happy with that compliment and lowered her guard a bit. I decided to chance it and say something as well.

"Yeah, he knows you won't abuse the power and use it to win money on Quidditch matches and Troll wrestling and..." I frowned. "Well y'know, Christmas _is_ coming and none of us have jobs yet. Maybe just one little bet wouldn't hurt?"

Hermione glared at me.

I am an idiot.

"One day Ronald," she said to me as if she'd given up on me altogether, "one glorious day you'll think about money _last_."

"Look here, Hermione," I began, ignoring Harry's groan as he sank back down under the sheets and began to mumble something about me never letting things go, "I'm not totally shallow, y'know?"

Hermione said nothing, but her eyebrows rose and she clicked her tongue and looked pointedly at the wall beside her.

"_Some_ people didn't grow up with a rich Mummy and Daddy and no older brothers to have to share everything with. _Some_ people didn't ever once get something new that hadn't been owned by someone else until they were thirteen years old." I didn't know where this rant was coming from; all I knew was it was a long time coming. "_Some_ people aren't wedged between two attention seekers and the precious little princess to make them bloody well invisible."

"Hey, Ron, mate, c'mon," Harry shifted in his bed, uncomfortably.

"No, Harry, let him shout." Hermione said calmly.

"Oh, you want shouting, do you?" I said, raising my voice and feeling extraordinarily pissed off not to be getting a reaction from her. "I have no NEWTs, no job offers and no inheritance from anyone to fall back on while I re-sit the last year of school...which has to be paid for past the age of eighteen, don't you know? But of course, you didn't know that, because it doesn't matter to you, does it?"

Now she was looking at me. She looked as if I'd just drop kicked Crookshanks. Harry was looking upset as well.

"You can't afford to go back to school and take your NEWTs?" my best mate in all the world asked, sounding hollow.

I could feel my skin burning and willed my bloody face not to glow in that maddening way it does when I get wound up.

"No school, no NEWTs, no Auror programme..." I rattled off, looking into my lap to keep from having to look into their eyes. "Basically, you're looking at the next Stan Shunpike."

"What?" Hermione gasped, furiously.

"I need to earn some money and it's the only job you can get without qualifications, that and cleaning the bogs at the Leaky Cauldron."

"No," Harry said defiantly, "you're not doing it. I won't let you."

"What are you gonna do, Harry," I said with a scoff, "finger wrestle me?"

"I'm going to pay for you to go back with us an-"

"Oh no, you're bloody n-" I began, not realising when I had been having it, that my tantrum was going to lead to this inevitable outcome.

"Shut up and swallow your bloody pride for once in your life, Ron!" Harry barked. "You can pay me back but you're taking the money and that's final."

"So from useless sidekick to freeloader...fan-bloody-tastic!" I hissed and got up from the chair to have a bit of a pace.

Us Weasleys do like a bit of a pace when we're aggravated about something.

"Ron, what have I told you about talking like that?" Hermione said as she jumped up to her feet and marched around Harry's bed to stand in front of me, blocking my path.

I folded my arms across my chest and resolved that it was better to say nothing rather than piss her off all over again. My silence pissed her off anyway. She hit me in the chest with both hands. I staggered backwards, not really with the force but just as an excuse to get her out of my face.

We were fighting, we were kissing, we were fighting again, she held my hand and now back to fighting. I'm getting too old for this shit.

"Look," she said, seeming to have put a lid on her boiling emotions, "you can make special arrangements to leave the castle every Saturday and work in Hogsmeade. You can pay Harry back week by week and when school's over you won't owe him anything."

That idea actually made me lift my eyes to look at her. She smiled at me with a look of determination that melted slightly into a smile.

"I s'pose that could work." I shrugged.

She sighed some of the tension out of her body and rubbed her hand up and down my arm. I don't quite know what it was supposed to do for me, but I liked it all the same. I chanced an apologetic smile and shifted from one foot to the other and she bit her lip before leaning in suddenly. It seemed as if she was about to give me a hug, but we both flinched apart when Harry cleared his throat.

"Um," he began apprehensively, "isn't that going to be difficult, though?"

"How so?" Hermione changed her posture back to her bossy, business-like stance and sat herself on the corner of Harry's bed.

"Well, y'know..." Harry shrugged and winced. "NEWTs are a lot of work and non-stop revision. Ron's supposed to have lessons and homework all week and then work all day Saturday? Isn't it a bit much, Hermione?"

"Oh!" I said, suddenly understanding everything at once and managing to articulate all my ideas in that one exclamation.

I looked at my friends as if they were supposed to understand exactly what I had just come to understand from nothing more than that little, excitable 'Oh!'. They didn't.

"Well, Hermione's got the Time-Turner and you're worried about me not having enough time..." I explained as if Harry had just had a bump on the head and needed to be spoken to very slowly.

"Um, well, that won't exactly wor-" Hermione was cringing as she spoke but Harry was on my case again before she could finish.

"Oh, come on, Ron. Hermione couldn't handle her workload with a Time-Turner, what makes you think you'll fare any better?"

"Well, I won't be doing extra classes, will I? That was Hermione's main problem last time," I said, wondering why Harry was raining on my parade.

That was Hermione's job.

"About the Time-Turner," Hermione said, a deep frown line forming across her forehead.

"No extra classes, but you'll be doing a Saturday job. It'll be exactly the same kind of obstacle, Ron. Think about it." Harry was huffing.

I swear that, if he could, he'd have been throwing his arms up into the air in exasperation.

"This is all a moot point, you two." Hermione was getting flustered.

I was already getting into this row with Harry so I waved her comment away to continue my debate with the bespectacled, bedridden one.

"Well, that's the only way I'm taking your money so if you don't like it then...then I'll see you on the Knight Bus!"

"Please, will you both just listen?" Hermione jumped up from the bed and stepped between us but I could still see Harry perfectly well over the top of her head and he, me.

"You are such a stubborn git, Weasley!"

"And you cannot carry me through life!"

"I'm not trying to do that."

"So, the boy who saves everybody isn't trying to save me from a shitty year in a demoralising job so I can pay my own way, huh?"

"Oh, throw that crap in my face, why don't you?" Harry said, looking hurt and peeved. "I don't _save_ people and I don't want to save you!"

"So let me do this or you can keep your money."

"_You can only use the Time-Turner once before it destroys itself and it will only go back exactly twenty-four hours, so this whole conversation is pointless!_" Hermione screeched.

Harry and I froze and stared at her.

"Say that again..."

* * *

_A//N Quickfire updates this time as I'm flying to Dublin tomorrow. I'll post Steppy's chapter tomorrow morning before I set off._

_Hope you're all well and nobody is trying to tell you Ron is anything but wonderful._

Solstice Muse


	6. Chapter 6 Hermione

**Chapter Six**

**by The Steppy One**

I sighed. I stood between Ron and Harry's bed and Ron had finally decided to look me in the eye. It's hard to get someone's attention by standing in front of them when that someone is Ron's height.

'What did you say?' Ron added to Harry's question.

Great. For the whole time they were arguing, I had a lot to say but now that they're both glaring at me, I seem to have lost my tongue.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, concentrating on repeating what I had just said at a speed the tall one and the immobile one would understand.

'You can only use the Time Turner _once_,' I paused letting this fact sink in a little before continuing, 'before it destroys itself,' again I paused, 'and it'll only take the user back twenty-four hours.'

I could practically see my words hanging in the air in front of me. Ron was just staring at me, open mouthed. After all he'd said in the past few minutes, it wouldn't surprise me if he'd talked himself out.

'Well, that sucks my idea down the bog then, doesn't it?'

Apparently not.

For once, I didn't reprimand him on his choice of phrase, after all, his one chance of being able to cope with N.E.W.T work and a Saturday job had, well...actually his phrase did sum it up quite well.

'Are you sure, Hermione?' Harry asked.

I turned round and glared at him.

'Actually Harry, no, now you mention it, maybe I did phase out when they went over the minor points in intricate detail. I'm sure I imagined the whole can-only-use-once-will-destroy-itself-after-it's-sent-you-back-twenty-four-hours part!'

Harry's shoulders twitched and I'm sure it was his natural instinct of raising his arms - well, trying to - to defend himself from my words, kicking in. Shame he couldn't actually do it. His natural defenses resorted to turning his face away from me ever-so-slightly.

'Alright, alright! I'm sorry, of course you're sure! It was stupid of me to think you'd have got that wrong.'

I smirked and turned away from them both to sit back on my chair.

Ron followed my lead and slumped down in his too. He went quiet. He was sulking.

As much as he'd not believe me if I said it, I understood why.

'Look Ron, we'll think of something. We always do. You know I'll help you as much as I can with your work, both of you in fact, and you two can help me relax when I'm stressing like I'm bound to, and we'll sort out the...the money somehow.'

'I'm not a charity case,' he mumbled.

'We know you're not, but it wouldn't hurt to swallow just a bit of your pride and let us help you sort this out, however we end up doing that.'

He was about to argue the point so I got in there before he could.

'For _our_ sakes if nothing else!'

'I...what do you mean?'

'Well, I'm not sure but I think Harry'll feel the same as I do. I don't think I'd be able to go back and be happy if you weren't there.'

I smiled at him but I grew concerned when he didn't return it. I glanced at Harry and I could tell from him expression that he thought I'd said the right thing.

'So you're gonna force me to borrow money off Harry so you two can feel alright about going back to school? That's emotional blackmail!'

I let my head fall forwards and I growled in frustration. When I eventually raised my head and looked at Harry, I saw he'd thrown himself back on his pillows again.

'So, Hermione, is there anything else about this Time-Turner that we should know about?'

He was changing the subject and ignoring a smouldering Ron, which was fine by me.

'Not that I know of. I think it's a kind of, 'in severe emergency only' Time-Turner. I'm actually...I'm actually kind of nervous about being responsible for it. It's daunting to say the least!'

Harry nodded. 'That's understandable. You could always put it in Gringotts I suppose.'

'Hmm, I thought of that, but what if - Merlin forbid - I need it and I can't get to the bloody thing 'cause it's safely hidden away?'

'Language, Hermione!' Ron said with a smirk. Apparently his quiet patch didn't stretch to not saying annoying comments aimed at me!

'Well, if it's any consolation I don't think there should be much reason to use it now everything's happened- Ah!'

'What is it?' I asked, slightly concerned by Harry's exclamation.

'Nothing, don't panic! I'm just getting pins and needles in another finger!'

I couldn't help but chuckle.

Harry looked at me sternly. 'I'm glad my unbearable pain is amusing to you!'

'Oh, don't be such a drama queen, Harry! You've got pins and needles; it's not as if your finger is under the Cruciatus curse!'

'When you haven't felt _anything_ in a finger for days, Hermione, it bloody well feels like it is!

I smirked at him and shook my head.

'So, where are you going to keep it then?' Ron asked with a sigh.

I turned to look at him.

'I don't know yet. I thought, maybe when we go back to school,' Ron tensed but I carried on, this was getting annoying, '_when we go back to school,' _I took a deep breath, 'I'll ask McGonagall to keep it somewhere safe, or to give me a box or enchanted cupboard to hide it in.'

Harry nodded in agreement. Ron didn't move.

'So, what are you two up to this afternoon?' Harry asked in a forced cheery tone.

I looked at Ron and watched him shrug at Harry.

'Wow, don't overwhelm me with enthusiasm, I might not cope in my fragile state!' Harry said.

'Dunno,' Ron replied. 'Might go for a fly or just cabbage at The Burrow.'

'Ron, I did not lose the feeling in my arms so you could sit on your arse all day! Get out and enjoy your freedom, for Merlin's sake! I wish I bloody could!'

'Yeah? Well, you have a life to look forward to, don't you? For some of us, things are a little less certain. Not all of us have Mummy and Daddy's inheritance to look forward to!'

I inhaled sharply at Ron's comment. I had a feeling he had just taken one step too far. No, that's a lie, I didn't have a feeling he had, I knew he had.

Harry went red and took a few deep breaths. For a few seconds, Ron looked a little nervous, although I don't think he meant to show it. He'd set his jaw in that determined 'I'm not going to back down' kind of way.

_This wasn't going to be pretty._

'Ron,' Harry said in too calm a tone. 'Be _very_ glad I don't have full use of my arms. Until I do, I'll have to settle for this.'

He stayed stock-still and I wondered what he was doing. Then I glanced at his right hand and watched as he straightened out his middle finger. The finger he'd just got the feeling back in.

Ron looked at Harry's gesture and took a deep breath. He looked at Harry for a second and then got to his feet. He turned and walked calmly out of the ward.

Well, this afternoon was going to be _fantastic_. Fan-bloody-tastic!'


	7. Chapter 7 Ron

**Chapter Seven**

**by Solstice Muse**

I was striding down the street, wet and freezing due to me having stormed out of St Mungo's without my cloak, and kicking myself for being such a prat.

It would never work, borrowing money from Harry; just the discussion of it had led to me insulting both of my closest and most forgiving friends. I had to come up with something else. Putting school off for a year wasn't an option; Harry wouldn't let me get away with that. Hermione's Time-Turner was going to be of no help to me.

What was the point of taking the N.E.W.T's just to fail them spectacularly?

I'd never been that impressive in classes, all going back to complete my education would do was to highlight just how mediocre I was academically. I didn't test well, not smart on paper at all, and it was a great source of annoyance to me, too. Why should my intelligence be judged by how much I was able to memorise and regurgitate for two hours on a summer afternoon?

Oh, who was I kidding?

If the qualification was based solely on my work throughout the year, I'd still be average at best. I'd only be taking the N.E.W.T's because it was what was expected of me. What would I do with my half dozen 'Acceptable' qualifications? I'd more than likely still end up on the bloody Knight Bus.

I'd be the most qualified Knight Bus conductor in the history of the Knight Bus...there it is, there's my claim to fame.

Ronald Weasley, Harry Potter's best mate, Fred and George's guinea pig, most above average person ever to work for the Magical Stagecoach Company, and Hermione Granger's... Hermione Granger's...

Hermione.

I'd stopped walking and was standing in the middle of the crossroads between Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley, my arms folded across my chest and my clothes soaked through to the skin. I shivered and wiped the drip from the end of my numb nose.

"Where the fuck am I going?" I said with a disheartened shake of the head.

I really needed a Butterbeer to warm my insides up but as soon as I left the middle of the road and stepped up onto the kerb, my head dropped. My money was in my cloak and my cloak was at the hospital and I was not going to turn back for anything in the world. I couldn't face Harry.

Merlin, I was a twat!

I may as well have said, _'Lucky for you with your dead parents and full pockets...I wish I was an orphan, too_!'

I shuddered at that thought. Then I thought of the kitchen at The Burrow and my mum baking something warn and filling. I couldn't remember the last time I'd just sat with my mother in The Burrow and chatted with her. I looked into the pub and figured that they might not object to letting me use their Floo to go home and get some home comforts.

I was a bloody war hero, for crying out loud.

I puffed out my chest and took a step towards the door before I heard a voice I knew and hated.

"But this is too public. This is too soon. Our numbers are low and our master is gone forever. Let's just go into hiding, eh?"

"That treacherous little coward," I snarled, my hand white with cold on the brass door handle, water dripping down to my elbow and my mind realising that this was a Dark Wizard's pub.

I wanted to go inside and give Wormtail a good kicking but I also didn't want to go into a pub full of conspiring Death Eaters with a grudge against Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix. Being Harry's right hand man and a member of the Order, I'd definitely not be too popular.

They definitely wouldn't let me use their fireplace to go home.

I let go of the brass door handle and took a step backwards, foot sinking deep into a puddle, and heaved a sigh. I wondered who to go and tell about this. Something was clearly brewing, one last hurrah from the sore losers.

Ordinarily, I'd go straight to Harry but what could he do right now? Hermione thought I was an utter dick, she was out of the question. I blinked the water that weighted down my eyelashes and peered further up the street. I saw the explosion of colour and light and life. I even managed a smile.

Fred and George would know what to do and who to call. I could dry off there and we could warn Dad at the ministry and Lupin at the Order and Tonks at Auror HQ. Yeah, Wheezes was the place to go right now.

I shook my sodden shoe and squelched on down the road just as I heard a crack that could only have been thunder. I wondered if my luck would change for the better or worse today. I wondered if it was for better or for worse that lighting would strike me. I wondered...

"Don't fucking move, lanky!" a harsh male voice snarled as something jabbed hard between my ribs and a pair of powerful arms forced mine behind my back.

"What the f--" I began to exclaim loudly but my right arm twisted painfully and the wand at my back sent a silencing spell into me.

"Quick, the Alley," the gruff voice snapped to his muscle man. "We can't be seen with him. _He_ can't be seen by anyone."

As I was dragged through the driving rain, rain that oh so conveniently kept the street empty, and into a darkened side street off Knockturn Alley, I began kicking out wildly. I couldn't reach my wand and I couldn't feel my fingers, it was so cold, so scrapping was all I had. I did pretty well. I kicked one of my assailant's legs out from under them and he fell on top of me onto the hard cobbled floor.

"_Compescor_!" the gruff voice snarled and my legs and arms were bound tightly.

I swore silently as I was thrown face down into the darkened alleyway with a splash. I lifted my face out of the puddle I lay in and coughed. There was a new voice and the rain was hammering against a metal dustbin lid like a steel drum. I tried to get up but I had no purchase on anything and had no other course of action than to just roll over in the puddle and pant heavily into the storm clouds and driving rain. The fat water droplets hit my eyes with such force they stung and I had to close my eyes.

I strained to listen to the frantic conversation. I was willing to bet Wormtail's voice was going to be there, that I'd been seen eavesdropping outside the pub. It wasn't a male voice though.

"I said you weren't to hurt him," a woman hissed sharply.

"You wanted him, we brought him. Where's our money?" the other man said, sounding a bit thick. He was obviously a Crabbe and Goyle style muscle-man.

"I didn't want him roughed up!" the harsh sounding woman said again.

I decided to try and squint through the rain and see if it was somebody I recognised. I could only make out three heavily robed figures in heated conference, huddled together. I wriggled in the puddle and tried to feel for my wand with my icy fingertips.

"Look, you pointed him out, said to bring him and not take no for an answer, now pay!" the larger man said.

The other spun around and pulled me up by the front of my shirt and threw me into a wall. I felt the wand forced into the base of my neck and tried to wriggle free but the stronger man was holding me again and the gruff wizard concentrated on holding me at wand point.

"What's he worth to you?"

"What?" the smaller figure, the woman said just as a crash sounded somewhere at the far end of the alleyway.

I still couldn't place any of the voices I was hearing and the rain blinded me even more than before.

"You wanted him. You don't want to see him roughed-up. I figure you want him enough to pay double." the gruff man sounded as if he was smirking.

"We agreed on a price!" the livid woman said, outrage seeming to stiffen her whole body.

"And we just upped it!" The wizard dug his wand even harder into the back of my neck and a red-hot spark burnt my skin.

I yelped without making a sound and the burlier man shoved me even harder into the wall.

"You get nothing if you hurt him," the woman said fiercely.

"Ron!"

I blinked and tried to turn my head to warn Hermione not to come running down the darkened alleyway. I had to warn her there were three of them and they were armed. I had to warn her that there were Death Eaters at the far end of the street and Wormtail was among them.

She had to stay away. She had to run away.

"Let him go!" She was screaming as her footsteps clip clopped rapidly down the alleyway.

"Take the money, give him to me!" the robed woman said urgently and coins bounced off the cobbles.

"_Accio_ _Galleons_!" the gruff wizard said, the wand tip leaving my neck.

"_Stupefy_!" Hermione screeched as the alleyway was illuminated with light.

I was pulled away from the damp wall and shoved in the back towards the smaller robed figure before the gruff voice growled at the woman who caught and steadied me.

"You set us up, you bitch._ Oppugno_!"

Something hit me hard in the back and everything was black.

* * *

_A/N Sorry for the wait. I couldn't log into the site to update._

_Thank you to all who are reviewing and sticking with us despite the picture we appear to be painting of poor Ron. I hop you know we would never do him an injustice._

_My Steppy sister's chapter will be up tomorrow (technical difficulties permitting)_


	8. Chapter 8 Hermione

**Chapter Eight**

**by The Steppy One**

'Let...him...go...' I managed to say calmly, which was amazing in itself as my heart was pumping adrenaline through me at a ferocious pace.

The hooded figure stared at me then started mumbling under her breath.

'LET HIM GO!' I screeched.

I knew she - well, I thought it was a she - had her wand in her hand and I knew she was putting more spells on Ron.

Her eyes locked on mine but her lips didn't stop moving.

'_Impedimenta!_' I screamed down the alleyway.

She instantly put up a shield and the curse deflected back towards me. Luckily, it hit the wall beside me.

'What do you want with him?' I asked her. She stopped mumbling and looked at me. I squinted and tried to see her face, but her hood sent awkward shadows across her face.

Again she mumbled something, but it seemed to be in response to my question as opposed to hexing Ron some more.

'_What?_' I snapped.

She ignored my demand but seemed to lose her composure because she slammed her foot on the ground.

It was this that took my attention from her wand and it was this that let her hex me with the Confundus Charm.

I swayed dangerously and fell to my knees.

'No!' I managed to whisper.

I knew I had to concentrate on Ron, but I was beginning to forget why. I had to help him, but...but the woman holding him looked like she was helping him. Maybe she'd help me.

I fell to the side and felt pain shoot through my hand, I looked down and saw red on the floor, but I didn't know what it was from.

Movement ahead of me made me look up. The kind lady was putting Ron on the floor, obviously he was better and didn't need her to hold him up anymore.

She was looking at him and stroking the hair off his face, but then my head spun badly and I fell forward into the concrete. I registered pain in my cheek and then I felt something hit the top of my head. My eyes closed and I felt no more.

* * *

'...personal identification cards on them?'

'I found one in his jacket pocket, but I haven't checked her yet.'

'I think I recognise them. Aren't they the two who keep visiting Potter upstairs?'

'Ronald Bilius Weasley, apparently!'

'Yeah, that's him.'

I managed to open my eyes a crack and finally put faces - well, moving blotches - to the voices that were invading my ears.

I tried to lift my head off the pillow but the pain that went through every inch of it made me abandon my attempts. I settled for listening for a bit longer.

'Right, well the emergency contact for Ronald Bilius Weasley is Harry Potter and Hermione Granger.'

'Well,, considering Potter is upstairs and it's always these two visiting him, I'll put good money on this being Hermione Granger. Hang on, here's her card. Yep! Hermione Jane Granger, emergency contacts...drum role please...Ronald Bilius Weasley and Harry Potter. Helpful lot aren't they!'

I coughed to get someone to pay attention to the fact that I was awake. No one seemed to notice.

Well, if people insist I lay here on this nice comfy bed then fair enough. Ron would do the same! Wait _Ron_!

I sat bolt upright and immediately regretted it. My head pounded but I had more important things to worry about, although it was very had to ignore the throbbing.

'Where's...Ron?' I managed to stammer out. I opened my eyes fully for the first time and rubbed my eyes with the back of my bandaged hand.

_What did I do to my hand?'_

'Miss Granger, please, lie down. You're not in any fit state to be up and about,' the least harsh of the earlier voices I had heard said kindly.

'I don't care! I need to know if Ron's alright!'

'Hermione?'

My heart jumped when I recognised Ron's voice.

'Ron?'

'Miss Granger, _please!'_ the more formidable witch said. I looked at her and recognised her as the Mediwitch who had refused to leave Harry alone with his medication earlier.

'Crap!' I muttered.

'Hermione, are you okay?' Ron shouted again.

I went to answer but was silenced by a harsh look from the Mediwitch.

'Get off me! I'm fine. I need to check on Hermione!'

My heart soared; obviously Ron didn't have a very harsh looking witch bearing down on him. The curtain that had been separating our beds was wrenched back and Ron walked up to my bed. He pulled me into a hug which made my head pound again but I didn't care.

'Are you okay?' he asked frantically, looking me up and down for visible injuries. 'I tried to warn you, I tried to tell you to not get involved but...I couldn't.'

His voice broke and he coughed to try and cover it up.

'It wouldn't have mattered if you did; I wasn't going to leave you there. You know I couldn't have left you.'

'Still, I didn't want you to get hurt.'

'I didn't-'

At that second, my head gave another painful throb and I couldn't ignore it. My grip on Ron's arm tightened involuntarily.

'What? What is it? Where does it hurt? Haven't you given her anything for the pain yet?' he barked at the Mediwitch.

A braver man would have cowered under the stare the formidable woman was giving Ron, but all credit to him, he held his own.

'She had only just woken up when you came barging in here, Mister Weasley! We would have sorted her out by now had you stayed where you were supposed to!'

'Well, can't you give her something now? She's practically dying here!'

Merlin, he _was_ brave!

The formidable Mediwitch huffed and puffed for a few seconds before walking to the trolley at the end of my bed and pouring out a bright blue potion for me to take.

'Down in one go!' she said to me when she had walked back up to my end of the bed.

I was sure that wasn't necessary but I wasn't feeling as brave as Ron, so as carefully as I could without giving my head another reason to pound, I took the potion in one swallow.

'Thanks,' I mumbled as I handed her back the bottle.

She made an indignant 'Hmph' as she turned away.

'Mister Weasley, I must insist that you leave Miss Granger alone to rest, as you should, too.'

'Can't I just sit with her. I'm okay; I was told that the second after the Healer revived me. Obviously, I'm not feeling unwell or I'd have collapsed by now! I promise I won't disturb her.'

'Please,' I added, hoping this would sway her. She didn't look like she was about to be swayed.

She went to open her mouth but the other Mediwitch who had already re-made Ron's bed got there before she had the chance.

'That's fine, Mister Weasley, just be sure to tell one of us if you start to feel unwell.'

'Thanks!' Ron said with a beaming smile.

He sat down on the chair that was next to my bed and propped his feet on the edge. I couldn't help but giggle, then I realised he was only wearing a hospital gown and he wasn't completely covered.

'Er...Ron...'

'Yeah?'

'Er...your gown is er...well...airy!'

I laid back down and stifled another giggle as Ron made sure he was completely covered, after he had turned a brilliant shade of red.

The nicer Mediwitch walked over to us from the other side of the ward and smiled at me.

'Do you want me to tell your other friend...Mister Potter...that you're here? He's the other person on your identification cards, isn't he?'

'Yes, he is, and that would be great, thanks. I don't suppose you could bring him down here, could you? He'll only panic if he can't see we're alright for himself.'

Okay, that wasn't strictly true, if he was told we were fine then he'd probably be all right until he could see us, but we had to tell him what had happened.

'After everything we've been through...' I trailed off. I was getting far too good at playing the mentally scarred war hero.

'Of course, Miss Granger.'

'Call me Hermione, please.'

'Okay, I'll see what I can do.'

'Thank you.'

I glanced over at Ron as the Mediwitch walked out of the ward. He seemed to have recovered from his embarrassment and had returned to his normal colour, almost.

I wondered how to phrase my next question without sounding accusing.

'Ron, why were you at the entrance to Knockturn Alley?'

I closed my eyes. _Yeah, needed more thinking time, Hermione._

'I wasn't doing anything wrong! I'd just been walking and I ended up there! I was actually going to go inside the pub and ask if I could use their fireplace so I could Floo _home_. What do you think I was doing there?'

This was _not_ what my recently confounded brain needed.

'I'm sorry, I wasn't accusing you of anything, I was just wondering why you were in the place where you were attacked that's all. Whether it was a coincidence or whether someone was following you. You're the one who taught me to look at every possible angle of every situation!'

Ron slumped back in his seat and folded his arms across his chest. He went to prop his legs on the bed again, but stopped when he remembered what had happened the last time that he had.

'Please tell me there will be a time when I can walk in on you two and you won't be arguing!'

I turned round to see Harry sitting awkwardly in an enchanted wheelchair that Harry seemed to be controlling with his wand. Apparently, he now had the use of enough fingers for him to be able to hold it and wave it properly.

'You got here bloody quickly!' Ron answered.

'You shut up! I'm still pissed off with you for what you said earlier!'

Ron scowled and resumed his previous position - his sulking stance.

'Merlin, you two can't even walk through Diagon Alley without causing trouble!'

'We didn't start it, Harry!' I said in reply.

'Well, what did happen then?' he demanded.

I looked back round at Ron and shrugged.

'Thought you weren't talking to me!' he said with the maturity of a three-year-old.

'I'm not, but that doesn't stop you talking to me. Now tell me what happened. Now!

* * *

_A/N This was written before DH gave Hermione's middle name as Jean so, seeing as this is already AU it was left as it is._


	9. Chapter 9 Ron

**Chapter Nine**

**by Solstice Muse**

"Okay, well the first thing you need to know, that everybody needs to know, is that Wormtail's back and he's got some mates gearing up to attack."

Harry and Hermione just stared at me. I looked away. What else was there to say?

"You saw him?" Harry asked eventually.

"I heard him," I said, avoiding the steely glare Hermione was giving me. "The pub I was gonna Floo from, it was full of Death Eaters and Wormtail was there, too. It sounded like he was bottling it, the coward."

"So Death Eaters caught you?" Hermione said, her voice sounded very rough and I glanced at her before looking back at Harry.

"I'm sorry...about before. I'm having a really bad day," I mumbled.

Harry raised his eyebrows and looked at me as if he was going to make me grovel. Then he let out the breath he'd been holding and shrugged at me.

"It's hard to stay angry with you when somebody just tried to kill you, mate."

I frowned and glanced at Hermione again.

"Thing is...Hermione, did it look like the woman was...? Did it look like she wanted to hurt me?"

Hermione's face seemed to flicker with a memory before she set her jaw and straightened the sheets of her bed.

"Well, I was confounded, wasn't I, so I can't really say. Though I did think, before I blacked out that is--I did think she was being very gentle with you."

"She didn't want me roughed-up," I said to myself as I remembered parts of the confrontation in the alleyway.

"Who? Ron, who was this woman?" Harry asked, gripping his wand for no other reason than it was all he could physically do right then.

I shook my head and looked to Hermione to see if she'd seen her. She was waiting for me to fill in all her blanks though and wasn't forthcoming with any descriptions. I shifted in my seat and tugged at the flimsy piece of cotton that wasn't doing a hell of a lot for either modesty or masculinity.

"The two big guys, she was arguing with them over me. She'd paid them to bring me in and when they got a bit heavy-handed, she wasn't happy at all. She told them not to hurt me and they tried to squeeze her for more money. It's like she was buying me."

I looked at Hermione again and she seemed to be cold, either that or she was visibly shaking with anger or fear over what could have happened if she hadn't come along.

"So, it wasn't...they weren't after money from you?" Harry said with a suspicious expression on his face.

"You what?" I frowned at my best mate.

Harry looked me hard in the eye and his lips tightened to such an extent that they were hardly visible at all.

"They wanted money _for_ you and not _from_ you right, Ron?" Harry said sternly.

"I think we've already agreed I _have_ no money, Harry!" I found myself snapping.

"Yeah and it's never made you lash out at me like you did earlier on, either. Money makes you all sullen and quiet, not abusive."

"I said I was so--" I began, throwing my arms into the air.

"Were they loan sharks?" Harry blurted.

I stared at him in disbelief.

He really thought that of me?

He really thought my ego was so colossal that I'd go to Dark wizards for money to go to school?

"Ron?" Hermione leaned forward and looked into my eyes. She looked mortified.

She believed that of me, too.

"I'm gonna get dressed." I said numbly as I got up from my chair and tugged at the curtain behind me.

"Sit your arse down, Weasley!" Harry snapped and flicked his wand at my chair.

It slammed into the back of my legs and knocked me back in to it. I felt my ears and the back of my neck burning and scowled at Harry for not letting this go.

"I don't owe anybody any money and I won't owe you any either if that's what you're worried about!" I snarled through my gritted teeth.

"Let that go for one second and tell us what on earth happened to you out there?" Hermione said, her voice hitching with emotion.

"I told you!" I snapped. "I went for a walk. I stopped at a pub to Floo home. I heard Wormtail, so I didn't go inside. I was walking to the twins' place to alert people to the attack they were planning in the pub. Some bloke stuck a wand in my back. I got shoved into a dark alley and some woman argued with the big guys over payment for me. That's when you showed up and got yourself hurt, you dozy mare!" I nodded towards Hermione.

"You were caught in the middle of a duel," Hermione said fiercely, almost protectively. "You were hit in the back. Of course, I tried to help you."

"Well, you obviously didn't, did you?" I heard myself saying before I could stop myself.

"Excuse me?" Hermione's gasped, face falling.

I nodded to her bandaged wrist before looking down at my hands and tugging at the hem of the stupid gown thing again.

"What is wrong with you today?" Harry asked, eyes full of hurt on Hermione's behalf.

I got up from my seat again and shoved it away so Harry wouldn't be able to do his little trick again.

"_I'm_ the prat," I said with a bitter smile. "I sometimes forget that I'm _always_ the prat."

I almost ripped the curtain off the rail as I pushed it aside and stepped through to gather my still wet clothes from beside the bed. Performing a drying and warming charm, I thought back to that moment before Hermione went into Gringotts that morning.

She's flung herself at me many a time, but this morning was different. She was so happy to see me. I thought she must have had fantastic news from Dumbledore's will but she was just talking about me. She was hugging me and running her hands all over me as if she didn't believe I was really there, and then she kissed me.

She _really_ kissed me. It wasn't like a peck on the lips--it was a _real_ kiss and it felt as if she meant it.

She cupped my face in her hands as she broke away and she was crying and smiling and then she told me she liked me. She said she _really_ liked me. Then she shoved me away before I could say anything and ran off blubbering something about how she shouldn't be there and it being wrong.

The next time I saw her, she was different. She acted as if nothing had happened. She glared at me as if I had boils all over my face when I leaned over the table and kissed her back.

But, of course, this was all somehow my fault.

"Ron?" Harry had levitated his chair over to a small opening in my curtains and peered through cautiously.

"I'm going to the Ministry to tell them what I heard. I'll come visit you again tomorrow," I mumbled.

"Ron, are you okay? No--I know you're not okay but can you please tell me why you're not okay?"

"Why don't you ask _her_?" I said as I waved at the closed curtain that divided my bed from Hermione's. "Ask _her_ why I'm more than okay at eight o'clock and suddenly I'm not so okay at eleven?"

Harry blinked at me and looked over to what was obviously his view of Hermione sitting up in her bed.

"I don't understand, Ron." Harry frowned and shook his head.

I pulled on the last of my clothing and put my wand in my back pocket.

"You and me both."

With that I walked out of the ward in search of a fireplace.

* * *

Y'know those stories you hear your mother tell about you fifty odd times a year for your whole life? Those stories you hate? Stories that make you cringe and sigh and roll your eyes and cause your soul to scream in pain when somebody asks her to re-tell it yet again?

Well, having to tell the story of my walk in the rain was one of those stories.

I'd told Harry and Hermione and then I told my dad. Then Dad took me to his superior to tell them, then his superior's superior, then a committee of superiors and after that, my dear old dad took me to tell the Aurors. After I told the Aurors, I had to tell the Order. Then Dad sat me down and pushed a Butterbeer into my hands and asked me if I was sure I'd told them everything I remembered.

"Well, y'know what? After the sixtieth time I think I might have omitted something huge like the name and address and a signed photograph of the three nutters in the darkened alley. Thank goodness you probed further Dad, I would have never have thought to mention it otherwise!"

My dad has always been the best person in the family at dealing with me.

He bit back a comment and sat back, folding his arms with a gentle smile before speaking softly and kindly to me.

"Keep going, Son."

I huffed and took a swig from my bottle before banging it down onto the table and hissing as it foamed over my hand. Dad had a handkerchief in his hand in an instant and was offering it to me. I took it and cleaned up the spill and myself.

"Sorry." I said dejectedly.

"No, I said keep going."

Merlin, I love that man sometimes.

I dumped my elbows down on the table and rubbed my face hard before growling into my hands and gripping my hair with frustration.

"It's just that I'm the only person to come out of this war less of a man then when I went in. I have officially become pathetic. I can't even have a proper conversation with my friends anymore. I feel like whole parts of my life didn't really happen at all. I harboured a bloody traitor in my bed for years and he's still alive now and plotting to hurt more people. I'm getting bought and sold on the soddin' street by who bloody knows? And Hermione, she looked at me like...like I was..."

My head dropped. I'd finally run out of steam.

My dad patted me on the back and I hugged him.

"I don't wanna be the pathetic loser, Dad," I said, my eyes burning. "I don't want to be the tag-along one. In years to come, what'll the history books say about me? Ron Weasley...the other one."

My dad was shushing me and patting the back of my head. Oh shit, I should be way past crying on my dad's shoulder by now. This is really humiliating.

"You know you are talking nonsense, don't you my boy?" He sighed.

I gave a watery chuckle into his dampening robes and nodded.

"As ever."

I felt his hand rubbing up and down my back and I began to take deep breaths to pull myself together again.

"Why don't you tell them?" he said as I eventually sat back again and wiped my face with the back of my hand.

"They already know I'm a git." I shrugged.

Dad grabbed my wrist and fixed me with a hard look.

"Harry's still recovering and Hermione's such a sensitive soul. They won't judge you. I'm sure they have this post-traumatic stress thingamabob as well, you know?"

"Dad, don't..." I shook my head.

He lifted my chin and held my face in place to force me to look him in the eye.

"The three of you suffered a lot in the final battle and now you get a blast from the past like Pettigrew showing up and seconds later getting a wand in your ribs." Dad looked so old and sad for a brief moment. "You need to talk to your friends, Ron."

"Not Harry. He feels guilty if someone he loves gets a splinter." I grumbled.

Dad chortled and ruffled my hair. I took another deep breath and let it out.

"Hermione doesn't want me," I said hoarsely. "I tried...I asked, well I didn't ask but I...I tried. She doesn't want me."

"Are you sure about that, Son?"

I thought back to the look on her face at the cafe after I'd kissed her. I nodded.

Dad slapped his hands onto his lap and grunted as he got to his feet. I looked up at him as he smiled down at me. Our perspectives were just the same as when I was a little boy and he seemed like the biggest, strongest man in the world.

"Drink up, my lad, and I'll go and make you a Portkey home alright?"

"Dad," I shook my head, "I can Apparate. It's fine."

"You can but you won't," Dad said firmly. "You're going home via a Portkey of my own making into my own house. Somebody went for you just walking down the street and they're still out there, Ron. I'm not taking any chances."

I smiled and nodded before taking another swig from my Butterbeer. Dad left the room, locking it behind him.

I sniffed and wiped my face again, embarrassed at my behaviour. It was not the behaviour of a grown man, that was for sure. That was when I heard it. There was another sniff but it wasn't from me this time.

Somebody else was in the room and they were crying.

I put the bottle down and called out stupidly.

"Hello?"

There was a sharp intake of breath and then nothing.

I drew my wand and got up out of my seat slowly. All those years sneaking around under an Invisibility Cloak gives you a sixth sense about noticing these kinds of things.

"What the hell do you want?" I spat out in annoyance.

I jumped as warm breath stroked the back of my neck and somebody whispered into my ear.

"Somebody's got to look after you."

An arm curled around my waist and I felt myself being side-along Disapparated with a loud crack.

* * *

_A/N So I hope you now understand why Ron was so off earlier in the story._

_Tomorrow is our perfect hero's birthday (29 years old!) and thank you to all you good hearted Ron-loving people for all your patience for the explanation for Ron's attitude._

_This fic has unfortunately attracted the attention of some bitter Ron haters who seem to blame JK Rowling for their not being able to get a boy/girlfriend. I managed to avoid them for so long but they have found me._

_Please keep the Ron love alive!_


	10. Chapter 10 Hermione

**Chapter Ten**

**by The Steppy One**

I had discharged myself from the hospital about twenty minutes after Ron had stormed out. There was nothing wrong with me. I'd put up with a lot more than a Confundus charm before without any medical help, and the pain relief was still doing its job.

Harry really didn't want me to leave, he said it was because I should be resting, but I knew that he just didn't want to be left alone to mull over what had happened to Ron. He might drive himself mad if he did.

I couldn't stay at the hospital though; I had some thinking of my own to do.

I didn't know whether to go after Ron or not, but if I'm honest with myself, I couldn't face him. I just didn't understand why he was snapping at everything. Mind you, I didn't exactly help the situation when I echoed Harry's suspicions that he had gone to a loan shark to borrow money. In hindsight, of course, I knew that he wouldn't do something like that, but after his behaviour today I just...didn't know anymore.

Ron's behaviour.

Merlin was that a puzzler. The way he kissed me during breakfast caught me off guard. I'm past denying my feelings for Ron. I've wasted far too much energy on that in the past, but for one reason or another, a war for example, we just never got round to making anything official.

We're only a couple of weeks after that final battle; I don't want to press anything. We're all still adjusting to the new way things are. Harry's up and down and Ginny's not much better. I'm sure if one of them would just talk to the other, it would make that situation a whole lot better.

But their problems with communication were not my main concern.

I walked for a while through Muggle London. Over the years, the streets had become a comfortable sanctuary from the Wizarding world. Although, the fact that they had become familiar to me because I've visited the hospital many times, wasn't so comforting. I had visited that hospital more times than one person should ever have to visit a hospital.

I turned down a side alley that Ron would more than likely have stopped me going down if he were with me, but the thought that it might not be safe didn't cross my mind. It wasn't until I was lying on top of a huddle on the floor that I noticed it.

'Any spare change, luv?' he grunted.

Normally, I would just say, 'no, sorry' and carry on, but today I stopped and rummaged in my pocket, keeping my distance, just in case.

I pulled out a handful of wizard coins and hastily shoved them back in my pocket before the man saw.

I saw his questioning glare at my pocketed hand.

'They're foreign coins,' I said quietly.

'Been on holiday, 'ave ya?' he asked kindly.

'Yeah,' I replied. 'Something like that.'

I dug deep in my other pocket and felt a scrunched up piece of paper. I pulled it out and saw it was a grubby five pound note. I thought for a second and then held it out to the man.

He hesitated before taking it from me.

'Cheers, luv.'

'You're welcome.'

I walked through the passageway and emerged in the street on the other side.

Money.

That's what everything comes down to. Well, at the minute it seemed to be what my problems revolved around. That and Ron's stubbornness.

I stepped off the pavement onto the road to walk round a group of friends who took up the whole pavement. As I landed off the small drop, my whole body jarred. Pain shot through my spine and into my head, making me clamp my eyes shut and take a sharp intake of breath.

My need to walk stopped there. I literally stopped exactly where I was and looked around for the best place to Apparate from. I knew I should have found an official Apparation point but my head was protesting against the idea. I turned and walked back through the alleyway I had just walked through and stopped halfway along.

I quickly looked around to make sure no one was watching and was about to turn on the spot when a figure stepped into the street at the other end.

'Damn!' I muttered to myself.

The figure walked towards me and I leant against the wall, waiting for them to pass.

When the footsteps slowed, I looked up but not in time to react to whoever it was pinning me against the wall. An arm pressed against my throat and the rest of their body weight pushed against mine.

I tried to gasp but I couldn't, the pressure was too strong on my throat.

I think whoever it was realised they were stopping me breathing, as the pressure on my throat released slightly.

'What...what...do you...want from...m...me?' I managed to stutter.

I could hear my heartbeat hammering in my ears and my head was pounding from the knock I received on the back of my head. All I wanted to do was shut my eyes, but I knew I couldn't.

I forced my eyes open and searched for theirs. It was then I realised they were cloaked with their hood up, covering all but their neck. Whoever it was, was magical.

'He deserves more respect than you give him. He worships the ground you walk on and all you do is put him down and think the worst of him.'

_What the hell?_

'He...deserves..._better_!'

'What the hell are you talking about?' I snarled.

I tried to push them away from me, but my newly healed hand protested. I had no idea who it was; I couldn't even tell if it was male or female.

_Think Hermione!_

I looked at what I could see of them, namely their neck. There was no Adam's apple; it was a witch.

Flashes of memory from earlier on flooded my mind. _Surely this couldn't be...?_

'_Treat him with respect_! He cares for you, more than...more than you deserve.'

Their tone had changed.

'What do you want with us?' I said as calmly as I could. 'First Ron, now me? I suppose I should be thankful Harry's in hospital or else you'd be after him, too!'

She let go of me and took a step back. I fumbled in my coat for my wand but before I had chance to grab a hold of it she had turned on the spot and Disapparated.

I sighed and slid down the wall. Tears stung my eyes and the blood pounding in my brain made my head hurt.

I just sat there for a few minutes, then I heard shuffling to my left. I panicked and stood up as quickly as I could.

'You alright, luv?'

I sighed in relief as I recognised the voice of the man from before.

'Er...yeah...yeah, I'm okay.'

'No 'fence luv, but you don't look it.'

Despite myself I smiled.

'You want a bit of this?'

He held up a polystyrene cup and I smelled the coffee inside it.

'I made it Irish, if you know what I mean.'

I shook my head.

'No, thanks. I have a headache already, I doubt that will help it.'

'I dunno, luv. I've always found this numbs the pain.'

I smirked.

'I've been in that much pain recently I think I'm used to it.'

_Where did that come from?_

'Look, thanks for the offer, but I have to go.'

I turned and walked back through the alleyway the way I'd come. I looked over my shoulder and watched the man shuffle the other way. I turned on the spot and Disapparated.

I appeared at the end of Grimmauld Place and started walking towards number eleven and thirteen.

After I had gone through the rigmarole of getting into the house, I quietly made my way through to the kitchen so to not awake the wench that was asleep in her frame.

I pushed open the door and saw Remus sitting at the table eating.

'Hermione!' he said after he had swallowed his mouthful. 'How are you? Arthur gave us a brief run down of what happened this morning after Ron had told him. Are you okay?'

He stood and walked towards me.

'I'm fine, Remus.'

He pulled an 'I don't believe you' face.

'Really, I'm fine. I've taken worse than a Confundus charm recently.'

For some reason, I didn't tell him about my latest encounter. I have no idea why; I think I just needed time to think over it before I told anyone.

'Yes, well, if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask.'

'Well, I could do with some more pain relief. What they gave me at the hospital seems to have worn off.'

Remus smiled. 'Of course.'

He went to a cupboard at the back of the kitchen and took out a small bottle.

'When did they give you the last lot?'

'Er...I dunno, but it was the blue one, so it wasn't that strong. Not like this stuff.'

Remus chuckled.

'Yeah, it's good.'

'Remus, do you mind if I go to one of the rooms upstairs? I just fancy a bit of a rest and a bit of thinking time.'

'Oh, course not. You know you're more than welcome here, and after all this is Harry's house, and I don't think he'd have a problem with it, either. Just make sure to let me know if you need anything.'

'I will. Oh! Could you tell me where Ron is?'

'He's still at the Ministry, I think. Arthur said he'd be there a while and then the remaining members of the Order have been asked to go to the Ministry to be told everything properly.'

'Oh, okay. Thanks.'

I left the kitchen and made my way upstairs. I automatically went into the room I normally slept in when I stayed there. I locked the door behind me and flopped down on the bed. I curled up and stared at the wall.

I replayed my altercation with the witch in my head. I was convinced that the same witch had attacked Ron earlier. But then Ron's question came back to me. Was she really attacking him? It didn't look like it when she was holding him up.

I sighed. Really, I had no idea what she was doing.

And then there were her words to me.

'_He cares for you, more than you deserve._'

What did that mean? Yes, we argue and bicker, but that's normal. The few days before the final battle, for once, Ron and I weren't arguing constantly and Harry had said this concerned him more than the impending confrontation with Voldemort. He'd said it just wasn't normal!

Even through all that we still know we care for each other. We'd been best friends for years.

Best friends.

My head gave another painful throb and my grip tightened on the bottle still in my hand. I sat up and took the potion in one go. My eyes closed as I felt the pain recede, but then I started to feel sleepy.

_Crap_! There's a reason why this stuff is good. It puts you to sleep during most of the pain.

I laid back on the bad and curled up again and let sleep overtake me.

* * *

I woke up a few hours later and checked my watch; it was half five. I sat up and was pleased to feel no pain. I squinted around in the darkened room and noticed a piece of parchment on the floor next to the door.

I picked it up.

_Hermione,_

_We went to the Ministry and saw Ron. He told us what happened and we've set things in motion to monitor the situation._

I hate that phrase so much. It meant that the Order were concerned about what they'd heard but really there was nothing they could do about it, so were going to wait and see what transpired.

I carried on reading.

_Arthur was taking Ron home to The Burrow and told me to tell you, you were welcome there, too, if you wanted to go._

_We've all left to see what we can do about what Ron told us, but we didn't want to disturb you._

_See you soon, take care._

_Remus._

I was glad there was no one in the house. I unlocked the door and made my way down the stairs, careful to not to wake the sleeping beauty.

I went to the lounge and threw some Floo powder into the fireplace.

'The Burrow!' I shouted, after I'd stepped into the green flames.

Grimmauld Place disappeared in a whirl of colour and a few seconds later, I stepped out of the fireplace at The Burrow.

Instantly, I knew there was something wrong.

I heard the familiar sound of Molly's sobbing and then I heard Ginny throwing unending questions at some poor soul.

'Hermione!' Arthur exclaimed.

'Dad! Why won't you answer me?'

Apparently, it was Arthur who was on the receiving end of Ginny's interrogation.

'Arthur, what's going on? What's happened?'

I felt the familiar feeling of panic rising up inside me.

'Oh Merlin, you don't know.'

'Know what?'

'Its...it's Ron.'

'What? What's happened to him? Is he alright?'

'He's disappeared. You haven't seen him, have you?'

'NO! Not since he left the hospital. I've been at Grimmauld Place sleeping a headache off! Where was he before he disappeared?' I demanded.

'We were at the pub. I was about to make a Portkey to bring us here but when I went back to get him, he wasn't there.'

I felt my legs go wobbly and moved to the sofa before I fell down.

'How come you'll answer her questions but not mine!' Ginny screeched from behind Arthur.

'Because, Ginevra, I've told you everything I know once already, but Hermione doesn't know what has happened and she needs to!'

Arthur was very close to shouting, something I had only seen on a few occasions, namely when he thought he was to blame for something and was having trouble coping with his conscience. I had never known his self-blame to ever be justified, but that never seemed to matter with him.

Ginny scowled and turned a brilliant shade of red.

'I'm sorry,' she replied quietly.

Arthur turned back to me, but before he said anything, I cut him off.

'Arthur, there's something I need to tell you.'

He sat down on the sofa next to me. I prayed to Merlin I wasn't going to regret the decision I made earlier.


	11. Chapter 11 Ron

**Chapter Eleven**

**by Solstice Muse**

Pacing isn't something a bloke can comfortably do in a five-foot by six-foot room but I was having a good go at it anyway.

My head was killing me.

I should have known that it wasn't going to be as easy as simply Diaspparating out of there, whoever this woman was, she was too clever for that, but I wasn't quite prepared for just how much slamming face first into a warded wall really did hurt.

I had another go at hammering on the door with my fists before kicking at it and continuing with my pointless pacing. I wondered what Dad would have thought when he came back and I wasn't there. Would he have assumed I'd just gone home by myself like I'd just told him I would? Did he think I'd gone out for a walk? Was he frantic, worrying that the gang from the Alley had got to me again? Was he on his way to the pub where I'd seen Wormtail?

I shuddered; Dad couldn't be so stupid to charge into a pub full of riled-up Death Eaters, could he?

I flung myself against one of the bare walls and slid down it, rubbing my aching head roughly.

"Oh shit."

I couldn't work out what this whole business was about. If it was the Death Eaters then they wouldn't mess about like this, they'd just kill me. If this was some weird witch with mental problems who'd set her sights on 'saving' me from myself, then why didn't she just make that clear? Surely, it would make the job of keeping me safe easier if she just talked to me. I paused to wonder if this was some kind of ruse to get at Harry.

Either wanting something from the saviour of the wizarding world or wanting to get onto his good side by appearing to 'rescue' me from some pre-arranged and pre-paid danger. I felt angry just thinking about all the ways I could be being used to influence Harry and hoped that whatever happened my dad didn't tell my best friend about this.

I sighed deeply and hid my face in my hands.

"Shit Harry, this is all supposed to be over now."

"No," a female voice said softly from the door, "it's supposed to be beginning."

I flinched and jumped to my feet. The robed woman flicked her wand at the door and it slammed shut and sealed magically. The spell was non-verbal and nothing I'd ever heard of before. The seams around the door filled in and it was nothing but a flat wall. I lunged at the witch to grab her wand but she sent a spell that pushed into my chest and slammed me back against the wall. It winded me slightly and, trying to catch my breath, I snarled at the woman who was trying to ruin my life.

"What do you want? Harry's still unconscious so you won't be getting anything out of him if it's blackmail or a ransom or anything."

"Harry's getting better by the day," the woman said, she sounded as if she was smiling and shook her head. "Typical of you to instinctively lie to protect him. You're incredible."

"I'm pissed off!" I bellowed and tried to push away from the wall but invisible hands as strong as Hagrid's shoved me back again.

"Ron, please don't fight with me. I don't like having to use spells on you. I've tried everything I can think of. I knew none of it would work but I tried anyway."

I glared at her and tested the power of the spell again with a grunt.

"I thought that knowing where I went wrong the first time would help but...but it's all playing out exactly the same. All I can do is keep you locked up until it's all over."

"What's over?" I yelled at her angrily. "The war _is_ over!"

"Please don't hate me, Ron, I have to do this." The woman's voice broke into a strained sob and she stamped her foot petulantly.

I stared at her foot and slumped against the wall. Gradually, my eyes glided up from the dainty feet in sensible shoes and over the pristine robes and the wand...I knew that wand, I knew who that wand belonged to.

"That's why," I gasped as I ran the day backwards to the very beginning. "It wasn't her...the kiss, the first kiss, it wasn't her."

The robed witch went rigid and the wand, the wand she had stolen from Hermione somewhere and somehow, trembled in her hand.

"No!" the witch said fearfully. "Please don't let me be the reason it all goes wrong...please don't let it all have been my fault!"

"Why Polyjuice into somebody else all day and then hide behind a hood?" I demanded as I tried in vain to push away from the wall again.

"I couldn't be _seen_!" the unmistakeable voice of Hermione Granger losing patience with me rang out loud and clear.

"Is this about Hermione? This is to get to Hermione and not Harry at all." I began to think fast, biting my lip and searching the empty space in front of me for the answer to make itself known. "You're...trying to trap Hermione?"

"Ron look at me."

My eyes widened as an epiphany struck.

"Dumbledore's inheritance, you think she got money. You think she got the key to his vault. This is ransom but not to get money from Harry--it's to get what you think Dumbledore left her."

"Ron, please look at me!" she said again, forcefully.

I snorted and lifted my head to rub her Polyjuiced nose in it.

"Well, unlucky you bitch he didn't leave her a Knu-" I spat at her before catching my breath as I saw she had dropped her hood and was crying.

"Please don't run away from me. Please just stay here until midnight. Please don't fight me, Ron."

"Stop it," I said with an uncomfortable gulp, "stop looking like Hermione."

"Ron I _am_..."Sshe hurried towards me and now I was pushing myself against the wall behind me.

"Stay the fuck away from me, you nutter!"

"You don't understand." She stepped towards me and lifted her hand to my face.

I don't know where I got the strength from, maybe it was the disgust that this creature was going to touch me, but I broke the charm and grabbed her wrists and shoved her backwards. She stumbled over the hem of her robe and tumbled backwards onto the floor. I fell heavily on top of her and tried to pry the wand out of her hand while snarling furiously down into her face, not her face, Hermione's face.

"How long has it been you? Was it since the kiss or later?"

She was wriggling and crying and begging me to listen but all I could concentrate on was getting that wand out of her hand. Her delicate knuckles were white with the intensity of her grip on it.

"In the Alley...you swapped in the Alley. That wasn't you in the hospital at all. _That's_ why you believed it when Harry guessed I owed money to Dark wizards!"

"God please, Ron, no! You have to believe me, you have to listen! Wormtail will kill you before today is done and..."

"Him!" I snarled slamming both the witch's wrists against the floor and looming over her like a lion about to go for her throat. "I knew this was going to be down to him. So you're his assassin are you? Or you just keep me until his little battle tonight, kill me to top off a victory or use me to keep him out of Azkaban."

The brown eyes I knew so well, puffy and red with tears, stared up at me and only made me angrier.

"Did you kill her?" I said, my voice breaking a little more than I thought it was capable. "Where is she? Where's my Hermione?"

"I'm right here," the impostor said, barely audible, as she lifted her head and pressed Hermione's lips into mine.

That was the thing that made me let her go. I had to pull right back, get as far away from her as possible.

"That's just fucking cruel," I said, my chest aching. "Kill me now or fuck off, you manipulative bitch!"

The impostor scrambled back along the floor, away from me, and got to her feet. She drew the wand and held it shakily at me before flicking it at the wall and the door emerged from the smooth surface again. I ran at it as soon as she opened it but she was nearer and flitted through, slamming it behind her.

There was nothing else for me to do but beat the living hell out of the door as it sank back into the wall and left me back in my empty box of a room with an emptier feeling inside my body.

"What did you do? What did you do to her, you evil bitch? I'm gonna fucking kill you!"


	12. Chapter 12 Hermione

**Chapter Twelve**

**by The Steppy One**

Pacing isn't something a girl like me normally does.

A girl like me normally finds a way out of a problem by finding a book and seeing how other people have dealt with similar situations, learning from their successes and failings and then applying it all to her own.

But instead of doing that, I was pacing.

It seems I've picked up on one of Ron's habits.

Ron. The person who's been missing for half an hour already and the one person I _need_ to have stand in front of me right now. We didn't survive all the rubbish we went through, for some psychotic witch who apparently has taken a fancy to Ron, to hurt him now that the war is over.

I was still pacing and I had no idea why.

I had volunteered to go to all the 'safe' places where it was a possibility Ron might be, granted it was the smallest possibility, but still, it was better to check them first, before we got ourselves in a panic only to find him sat in the twins' joke shop after we'd all been haring around trying to find him.

He wasn't at the shop though; Fred and George hadn't seen him today. We all knew he had planned to go there after he had heard Wormtail and his cronies inside the dodgy pub, but the psychotic witch had stopped him from doing that.

He wasn't in Hogsmeade as Ginny had checked there, and he definitely wasn't in Diagon Alley. Aurors from the Ministry had searched every shop and hadn't found Ron, or any clue that would help us find him.

He wasn't at Grimmauld Place, either. I knew that because that was where I started pacing, and had continued to do so for five minutes solid.

_Hermione, this isn't helping at all!_

I was about to take a seat at the kitchen table when the door burst open and Ginny fell through it.

'Is he here?' she demanded through gasps for breath.

'No, no he isn't,' I replied quietly.

'Well, why are you still here then? You should be searching somewhere else!'

I was instantly annoyed. I knew Ginny was just stressed about Ron's disappearance but that didn't give her the right to be rude to me. She wasn't the only one worried out of her mind.

'I just needed a minute to think that's all!' I snapped at her. This didn't help her mood.

She began to reply but then stopped. I could see her brow furrow and I knew she was thinking about something, going over something in her mind she didn't understand.

'Dad said he was upset.'

_And?_

'What…what's that got to do with anything?' I stammered. I had a sneaking suspicion I knew where this was going. If I was right, then I really needed to leave now.

'Well, if he hadn't been upset, he wouldn't have been in the pub, would he? Why was he upset?'

'Why are you asking me?' I replied, trying my best to keep calm. Getting hysterical and angry wouldn't help Ron. 'Your dad would know that, considering he was the one talking to him!'

'He wouldn't tell me all of what he said.'

'Well, if it was a private conversation then that's not really surprising, is it?'

_Oh well done Hermione!_ She's already pissed off and now you've just added to it!

I knew she was about to shout at me, so I bit the bullet and decided to say what she'd been dying to say since she fell through the door.

'Look Ginny, I know you're thinking that if Ron and I hadn't argued, then he wouldn't have been upset, so he wouldn't have been in the pub with your dad to then disappear to Merlin knows where, so at least have the decency to come out and say it to my face.'

For a second, she was stunned, but then she composed herself, rage burning in her eyes. Maybe that wasn't the best thing to say after all.

'You're talking to me about _decency_? You're the one who thought he'd gone to loan sharks to borrow money so he could go back to school! And you call yourself his _best friend_? You could probably be more if you'd actually admit it to yourself, and you wonder why he's upset?'

'How did you find-?'

'Harry told me. I went to the hospital to tell him what had happened. He told me everything that was said after you'd woken up.'

'After we'd both woken up, were shocked from what had happened to us and were angry at what had happened you mean?'

'Don't use that as an excuse! There was no reason to accuse him of that!'

'If Harry told you the facts, _Ginevra..._'

_Not thought through, Hermione!_

'...then he would have told you it was _him_ that accused Ron of that, and not _me_!'

'You didn't defend him though, did you?'

_I have to get out of here. Why are we wasting time arguing when we have far more important things to do?_

I sighed.

'Look Ginny,'

_Better to be safe than sorry!_

'We do not have time for this now. I know you're upset, we all are, but I will not stand here and argue with you whilst Ron's still out there somewhere. By all means, you stand here and rant 'til you make the light bulbs explode and wake up the wench in the hallway, but don't mind me if I go and do something useful!'

I walked towards her. I had to get through to the door. Hopefully, she wasn't going to do anything stupid.

I paused slightly as I passed her.

'Coming?' I asked. I was surprised she hadn't said something in reply to my previous little statement.

She still didn't reply, but turned on her heel and preceded me out of the kitchen and through the house.

'Where to?' I asked as the house slid into oblivion behind us.

'Er…back to The Burrow, that's where everyone seems to be going back to with reports and stuff.'

'The Burrow it is then.'

I went to Disparate but Ginny caught my arm before I had moved two inches.

She didn't say anything, so I tried to catch her eye. Eventually, she looked at me.

'I'm er…I'm sorry about what I said. It's not your fault...of course it's not. I just need someone to blame, you were the easiest target. I'm er…I'm sorry.'

She tried to hide the tears welling in her eyes but she couldn't. She sniffed.

'Shall we go then?' she said quietly.

Instead of answering her, I pulled her towards me into a hug. It was more for me than for her, if I was honest. I needed some sort of comfort.

It was too much for Ginny, though. She started to cry and it was all I could do to stop my tears falling.

'I'm sorry, Hermione!' she said through her sobs. 'You know I d…didn't mean anything I s…said.'

'Shh, I know, I know. Come on, Gin, we'll find him, he'll be fine. Harry and I didn't keep a tight hold of him during a war to lose him after it's all over did we?'

She chuckled quietly and pulled back from my hug.

'No…no you didn't.'

'Come on, let's get back.'

She nodded and we both turned on the spot and Disapparated from Grimmauld Place.

We arrived outside The Burrow and Ginny walked towards the front door but I hung back and looked at the place I called my second home.

'Are you coming in?' she asked when she realised I wasn't following her.

'Er…I'll be in in a minute. I just need to er…'

She nodded in an understanding way.

'I'll say you won't be long.'

'Thanks.'

She turned towards the house and I watched her walk through the big wooden door.

I looked around and saw the wood at the top of the hill. I smiled as various memories came back to me. Mainly ones of Ron being chased up the hill and into the wood by the twins, which always makes me laugh, but this time as they flooded my mind, I felt the familiar burn of tears in my eyes.

I made a decision there and then. When we found Ron, (I know we _would_ find him) I would make my feelings clear to him. We'd wasted enough time already, there was nothing stopping us being together now, except maybe our own embarrassment.

The next time I saw Ron, I would…I would tell him I love him.


	13. Chapter 13 Ron

**Chapter Thirteen**

**by Solstice Muse**

I could picture it now.

Harry, dragging himself along the floor of his ward at St Mungo's with his one working arm, declaring he would fight the Death Eaters in the streets of London. His 'saving-people-thing' would have kicked-in by now.

What about the family? They'd be charging into that bloody pub with wands blazing. What if any of them got hurt looking for me? I wondered how much of a mess my mother had become.

Then, there was Hermione.

I closed my eyes and rested my head against the flat, smooth wall, which had once been a door, with a deep sigh. I had no idea what she was thinking any more. She could be doing anything. She could be worrying herself silly, she could be reading eight books at once; she might even be storming into that pub right behind my livid brothers.

Then again, she might...she just might...not care at all.

I shoved myself away from the wall and growled at myself to have more faith in her. There was a lot of confusing stuff going on. Most of this mess was my fault. I nodded as I had this thought.

"Yeah, this is my fault."

I'd messed it up with the kiss and the crap about money. It hadn't been Hermione who kissed me that morning.

Merlin, was it still the same day?

As far as my Hermione was concerned, I'd kissed her out of the blue and then got all tetchy about being on the receiving end of handouts. My Hermione didn't want me to kiss her. She was cross with me because I'd shat all over our friendship just for the sake of a schoolboy crush.

"No wonder she was pissed off with me." I mumbled to myself.

But, pissed-off or not, she had still risked her life for me. She came running when Wormtail's witch had tried to take me the first time. She got hurt keeping me safe and the last thing I'd done was upset her. She was a better friend to me than I was to her.

She deserved better.

Then, I had a thought that made my stomach drop. What if everybody was occupied trying to find my worthless hide and nobody was prepared to stop Wormtail and his mates? They were going to strike Diagon Alley and everything the twins had was in their shop. They lived in the flat above it. It was the school holidays; there would be children with their parents on the street. Bill and Fleur were working in Gringotts.

I had no idea how to break through wards without a wand. I didn't think it was possible, even if I had one. But I had to try something.

I turned on the spot and tried to Disapparate again.

_Wump!_

My head spun and my ears rang. I staggered slightly and tried to shake off the dizziness. It was like being on the deck of a boat, caught in rough seas. I stumbled a little before righting myself and trying to ride out the temporary loss of balance that had seized me. Leaning against the wall, I took a couple of deep breaths in and out. I pushed my body upright again and shook my head to clear it. I couldn't give up. Maybe I'd weakened the wards.

I braced myself and went for it again.

_Wump!_

I hit the floor flat on my back and groaned. It felt as if somebody was spinning an egg whisk inside my brain. I rolled over onto my front and clutched my throbbing head in both hands. Sounds, breathing, thinking…they all hurt.

I heard the door emerging from out of the wall and creaking open.

"What's going on?" Hermione's voice called out fearfully.

I tried to blink the spots out of my eyes, wanting to get to my feet and charge at her and get the hell out of there. I crawled a couple of feet as fast as I could before launching myself forward for, what I thought was, the door.

The room was already spinning as I ran for it. The sudden blow to my body as the smooth white wall met me with a sickening boom floored me again. I heard a scream that drove into me like an axe to the head.

The sound and the pain echoed away from me. There was darkness and painlessness and quiet. I felt as if I was falling in a deep chasm with no bottom to it. There was a rushing wind, cool and smooth around me. I was being swallowed up and taken away from the hard floor, the bright room, and the aching in my head.

The breeze that rushed by my ears was slowing now and the blackness surrounding me lightened. I felt warmth. I felt the cold, hard, floor beneath me. I slumped limply as the sensation of falling fizzled into nothing. Just as I realised that something soft, but firm, had caught me as I slouched, the splitting pain in my head began to return. First, a tiny crack grew larger and became jagged. The pain penetrated deeper and deeper. The cracks were pulled wide and it felt as if my whole head was being pulled apart every which way.

It was like having another heartbeat inside my skull. My head had never hurt this much before in all my life, not even when the White Queen had given me a crack with her stone arm. I made a humiliatingly weak noise at the back of my throat and reached feebly for my sore head.

"Shhh, don't move," a soft female voice whispered to me.

I felt a delicate touch glide across the side of my face and my hair moving away from my forehead with a gentle stroke. I sighed and tried to roll over into the soft warmth that cradled my upper body. As soon as I turned my head, pain like bolts of lightning shot through my body from my head all the way down my spine and exploded out of my toes. I hissed and forced my eyes together ever tighter.

"Oh, shit!" I hissed through gritted teeth.

"Lie still," Hermione said from close by. "Oh Ron, what did you do to yourself? Why can't you just trust me and stay hidden?"

I winced and tried to pry my eyelids apart. The brightness of the room was dazzling and the face above me was a hazy smudge of brown with a lighter blur the colour of milky tea in the centre. The shapes emerged out of the collage of browns and creams and soon there was a mass, like a cloud, that surrounded a face. There were big, brown eyes blinking and then a smile, just a little smile, and the touch of a hand upon my cheek.

"Let me heal your head, Ron," she said, low enough not to cause my aching head any more pain.

"My-nee?" I blinked.

"Hold still. I couldn't fix you up properly when you were unconscious--it wouldn't have been safe."

I was about to say something when a flash of light hit me in the face and I heard a humming that seemed to melt some of the awful pounding away. I slumped in Hermione's arms and closed my eyes with a sigh of relief.

"'S better," I muttered.

Then, I felt long hair all around me and soft warm lips pushing against mine as a tongue parted them and tentatively explored inside my mouth. I opened my eyes and saw Hermione closer than I had ever seen her before. She was leaning over me and holding the back of my head as she kissed me deeper and harder. I let my mouth open wider and pulled her tongue inside eagerly.

"Mmm," Hermione moaned into my mouth before breaking away and smiling blissfully. "I'm so glad you finally believe it's me. I love you. Oh, Ron, you scared me so much I didn't think I'd be able to sto--"

"Believe you?" I frowned before I suddenly felt the rush of my memory returning along with a surge of adrenaline and I felt cold and sick all over.

I flipped over and held her down beneath me. My fingers tried to pry the wand out of her hand and she squirmed under me and began to weave her web of lies again.

"Ron, no, look at me, please look at me!" she pleaded with me frantically.

If she was this scared that she hadn't managed to pull the wool over my eyes, then I wasn't too late. I still had time to get back and stop Wormtail. I could go back to my Hermione and tell her...tell her I was sorry and I'd never jeopardise our friendship again.

"You made me fuck things up with my best friend, you evil bitch!" I growled down into her face as I managed to claw the wand from her hand.

"Ron, please, don't!" she screamed as I flicked the wand into her face.

"_Silencio!"_

I climbed off her and flicked the wand at her again.

_"Stupefy!"_

I ran for the open door and thought about attempting a Disapparition again. Remembering the pain in my head, I decided to play it safe and created a Portkey to the twins' flat.

As the teacup glowed and then returned to normal, I snatched it up and felt myself pulled out of the room and fell dizzily onto the faux Pygmy puff rug that lay before the fireplace at Wheezes.

I was a little out of breath and my blood was pumping so fast I could feel my pulse in my ears. I turned to look at the fireplace and thought about Floo calling The Burrow to let them know I was fine and to come to the shop and prepare a defensive attack. That was when I heard a loud booming followed by screams.

The glass in the shop windows downstairs shattered and I saw a broomstick fly past the window before being struck by a curse and crashing into the roof of a building across the street.

It was too late. Wormtail was already attacking.

I clutched Hermione's wand and ran for the stairs. I'd stop that traitor myself if it was the last thing I did.


	14. Chapter 14 Hermione

**Chapter Fourteen**

**by The Steppy One**

There was so much noise around me, people shouting, people arguing, people talking with other people via the fireplace. And then there was me.

I wasn't talking to anyone. I was sat on the stairs ignoring everything that was going on downstairs. I don't know why I wasn't trying to help; it was probably because deep down I knew there was nothing I could do to help.

Apparently, I wasn't allowed to go out and help find Ron anyway. Neither were any other of the Weasleys, although I didn't know how long that was going to last. Fred and George were starting to look murderous and I had a feeling Arthur was about to leave, regardless of his instructions from his superiors. The general thought was, if Ron had been taken, then the rest of his family and anyone else close to him could also be in danger. I argued my point that if that were true, then surely both Ron and I would have been attacked in Diagon Alley, (and considering I only was because I tried to stop the psychotic wench taking him, that didn't really count), but my words fell on deaf ears. I was to stay at the Burrow and wait until they found Ron.

Ron.

As the time Ron was missing increased, so did my determination to tell him how I felt. I wasn't sure of how I would say it exactly, but I would. I had to. The war might be over but it was still a dangerous time. If I'm honest, we'd not been careful enough the past few days, we should have looked out for each other and ourselves more.

'_Someone needs to watch Potter in St. Mungo's!'_

Oh, he's going to _love_ that. It's probably killing him knowing Ron's missing whilst there's absolutely nothing he can do to help. Even he should be able to realise that a wizard with only one working hand is not going to help matters in any way. In fact, it's probably best that someone's there to watch him, He'd probably try and perform _Imperio_ on himself to see if he could get his body working that way. Well, maybe that was a bit extreme.

Harry Potter, extreme? Yeah, that fits a little too well.

A shadow appeared at the bottom of the stairs and I knew whoever it was, was looking up trying to figure out who was trying to hide away.

'Hermione?'

My hiding had come to and end. Arthur had found me.

'I'm here,' I said quietly.

He walked up the stairs and looked down at me.

'May I?' he asked, gesturing to the space on the step next to me.

'Of course,' I replied, shuffling a bit closer to the banister so there was room for both of us.

'I think you've got the right idea, sitting up here away from all that.'

He waved his hand towards the bottom the stairs.

'Not very courageous though, is it? I'm here because I couldn't listen to the constant reports of negative sighting, or whatever they say when they don't find someone. I just wanted to get away.'

'I know how you feel. Plus, there's the fact that if anyone else tells me to calm down and not worry, I might inflict pain on them.'

I chuckled.

'I'm surprised Fred and George haven't let the entire contents of their shop loose on the lot of them,' I said with a smile.

'Ha! That would be something to see. I don't think it's come to that though.'

'WHY WON'T YOU LET US HELP?' one of the twins shouted suddenly.

The small smiles on both Arthur's face and mine slipped.

'You were saying?' I asked.

'Oh, Merlin! Maybe I should go down there.'

'Will it help?'

He sighed.

'Probably not. I'm probably safer up here too.'

I thought about what Ginny had said earlier, about Ron being upset and talking to Arthur. Before I had though about it properly, I felt my mouth open and heard the start of a sentence come out of it.

'Why was he-?'

I stopped, thankfully my brain kicked in before my mouth said something I regretted.

'Why was he what?' Arthur asked quietly. He wasn't harsh with his question; just reassuring that he didn't mind what it was. Although I had a suspicion that he knew what I was going to ask.

'Er…Ginny said he was upset when you spoke to him. I was just wondering…why? But it was between you and Ron, it doesn't matter. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked.'

Arthur smiled.

'You care about him don't you?' he asked.

'Of course I do, he's my best friend.'

'Hermione, I think you care about him more than that.'

'Does everyone know this apart from me and Ron?' I asked with a smirk.

'Apparently!'

'Just so you know, he cares for you, too. A lot. He just needs you to tell him so, he's confused about a few things. I'd tell you but-'

'No, I don't want you to, what you talked about was between him and you. You shouldn't tell me. If Ron wants to tell me then…then he will.'

'I told him he needed to talk to you, and Harry, too. He-'

'DIAGON ALLEY'S UNDER ATTACK!'

Arthur and I stood up and stared at each other. At the same time we both set off down the stairs and stopped and stared at the various raised voices trying to sort out some sort of defence and a plan of action.

Someone shouted the order 'GO! NOW!' and I felt myself turning on the spot, but I felt a hand grab my arm.

'You're not allowed to go, Hermione. It'll be dangero-'

I have a feeling my glare told him all I intended it to. I didn't mean it at him; it was at the fact that people thought I was going to sit here and not help when people I cared for were in danger, that made the expression appear on my face.

'Are you going to stay here?' I asked him quietly.

He shook his head.

'No, I can't stay here now.'

'Neither can I.'

'ALL THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN TOLD TO MEET IN THE WEASLEY SHOP, GO NOW!'

'If I don't try and stop you, will you promise to be careful?' Arthur asked me quietly.

A few people had turned to look at us; obviously making sure we weren't about to do 'something stupid'.

'Only if you will,' I replied.

He smiled and let go of my arm. He took a step back from me and breathed deeply. We both turned quickly on the spot and Disapparated, but not before I heard a few strangled 'NO!'s in the room I was leaving.

The orange light of flames burned through my eyelids before I'd managed to open them.

'You two aren't supposed to be here!' an Auror shouted at us.

Arthur replied by pushing past him and following the other people who had Apparated to the shop out the door. I followed in his footsteps.

I thought I had seen the end of the terror and the fighting, but what my eyes saw told me otherwise. Cloaked figures were stood over huddled forms on the ground, some moving, others perfectly still.

I gave myself a few seconds to look at the scene before me and then my brain went into overdrive. I was about to take a step forward when I heard a sharp intake of breath behind me. I spun round, wand raised and squinted into the dark. I lit my wand and the beam of light fell upon a familiar pair of trainers. I gasped and flicked the light up into the person's face, which made him raise his hand to stop it blinding him.

No, it couldn't be.

'Ron?' I managed to squeak out.

Before he had chance to say anything I started running towards him, and when I reached him I threw my arms around him. I held him to me and tears started to fall down my cheeks and onto his shoulder.

'Oh, thank Merlin you're okay. We were all so worried, we thought…we thought…Oh!'

My mind couldn't form another sentence so I did the next best thing I could to tell him how relieved I was; I pulled him closer to me.

He muttered something under his breath and I turned my head so I could hear him better, but didn't let go of him.

'Pardon?' I whispered.

'It's not you,' he replied in what seemed like a calm tone.

I didn't understand what he'd said. _What_ wasn't me?

'What?' I asked, finally taking my head off his shoulder and moving back from him slightly, but I kept a tight hold of his arms.

He looked me directly in the eye and I knew then that something was wrong. As much as he hates it, you can always tell how Ron's feeling by his eyes. He wears his heart on his sleeve, or more literally in the look of his eyes.

'It's…not…you,' he said again. This time, I noticed he'd said his words through gritted teeth. Something was definitely wrong.

'Ron what's-'

A large explosion made me jump and I instinctively shoved Ron backwards towards the twins' shop. But after a few steps, he resisted and pulled my hands off his arms.

'Get away from me!' he hissed. 'I know you're not my Hermione, she doesn't want--. You can either turn yourself in quietly or we can duel right here, right now.'

He took a step back and drew his wand.

Hang on, that wasn't Ron's wand, but then…why does it look familiar?

'Ron, what the hell's going on? What do you mean I'm not your Hermione! Of course I am, well, I suppose that depends on the definition of 'your' but--'

Yes Hermione, because this is the time for _that!_

He took a deep breath.

'Look, either put your wand--'

He stopped as he looked at the wand in my hand but then shook his head as if clearing his ears of water and got back on track.

'Either put your wand on the ground and surrender, or duel with me!'

'Ron I'm not going to duel--'

'_Stupefy_!'

Without thinking, I conjured a shield around me and the curse bounced off it. My fighting instincts took over and I sent my normal spell of attack at him – an energy force designed to knock your attacker off balance. It gave you a few seconds to do whatever you needed to, but didn't harm your attacker.

I watched Ron as he stumbled backwards a few steps and then gained his composure.

'Ron, tell me what the hell's going on? Why are you acting like…this?'

'Well, you're good, I'll give you that!' he said with a smirk. 'You've definitely done your research, that's _exactly_ what my Hermione would have done! Given herself enough time to think of a solution to the problem without actually harming me! She's like that you know, caring, considerate, a really _good_ person, but you wouldn't know anything about being _good_, _would you?_'

My head was spinning. I didn't understand any of this. Why didn't Ron believe I was 'his Hermione'?

What he did next took me by surprise. He strode towards me and I half-lifted my wand arm but then let it fall next to me, two voices in my head having a silent war with each other.

'I know, I'll give you something you seem to enjoy!'

He stepped up to me and brought his lips down to meet mine. I couldn't think for a few seconds, all I could feel was the way Ron's lips felt against mine. I didn't even notice him grab both my wrists in his hands.

I did a second later though; when he spun me round so fast I almost fell down on the floor.

'_Incarcerate!_' he hissed into my ear.

I felt thick cords wrap themselves around my wrists and I instantly struggled against them.

'No! Ron! Stop it! Why are you doing this?' I screeched. 'It _is_ me! You have to believe me, ask me anything! ANYTHING!'

I was screaming now, I had run out of any other options.

He picked me up off the floor and carried me over to the front of the twins' shop and set me on the floor. He flicked his wand at me and more ropes wound there way around me, eventually stopping me being able to struggle at all.

'Ron PLEASE!' I begged. I was sobbing now, I just didn't know why any of this was happening.

He looked down at me with nothing but hatred in his eyes.

'You…you slept with your…your fingers crossed for six months solid whilst we were searching for the Horcruxes!' I screeched, trying to make him believe me. 'You made Harry promise that he would ask Ginny to marry him if he came out of the final battle alive. You asked ME if I thought they were meant to be together! Ron, how else can I know those things if I wasn't your…_your_ Hermione?'

I saw a shadow of doubt in his face, but it was gone in the next instant.

'You are going to sit here and watch the rest of your Death Eater friends either be killed, tortured or given the Dementors' Kiss. I'll send someone to get you after I've found that snivelling little traitor Wormtail. _Enjoy the show_!'

He turned away from me and ran.

'RON!' I screamed after him. 'NO! RON!'

My screams went unanswered.

All I could do was watch the show.


	15. Chapter 15 Ron

**Chapter Fifteen**

**by Solstice Muse**

Running into a fight wasn't new to me. In fact, it wasn't even before I met Harry. We're scrappers, Weasleys are, and we are always the kind to punch first and ask later.

I had felt a little sick as I kissed that fake Hermione. That would be my only experience of ever doing so, other than that morning's dreadful failure of a kiss that is, and I hated that my image of Hermione was now always going to remind me of that Polyjuiced bitch kissing me and telling me she loved me.

We went through a whole war without telling each other we loved each other. What would be so different now? I'd been so eager to believe it that I didn't think about how out-of-character it was.

Of course, it was an impostor.

The only people who thought we were meant to be together were people who didn't know us well enough. Hermione was destined for the Krums of this world, not the second fiddles.

Nobody goes to their Quidditch team's reserve match; they support the real thing.

"_Diffindo!_" a gruff yell came from my left and I ducked and sent out a shield charm.

The spell was absorbed and I rolled behind an upturned toffee apple stall and sent out some stunning spells before binding the wizard's hands and feet. I scrambled back up and ran, keeping low as I did, to the pub where I'd overheard their plan earlier that day.

I could hear it, the whooshing of the fireplace and cracks of Apparition. Death Eaters were arriving via the pub and emerging to give reinforcements to their scummy cohorts. Soon, the Aurors would be overwhelmed. They thought this was it and any moment now a second wave of fresh fighters would charge from the pub and strike them from behind.

I leaned against the wall of the pub, practically back in the Alley where this whole mess had started, and closed my eyes to search my mind for some way to stop it. There were too many for just me. If only my brothers were here--Bill, Charlie and the twins--we'd give them what for.

My eyes snapped open and I remembered something Bill and Charlie used to do to make me and the twins laugh when we were babies. I summoned a toffee apple over the road and into my hand. Twirling my wand around the apple, I muttered what my memory told me had been the spell they had used.

"_Thermeo intus, thermeo intus, thermeo intus!_" The apple glowed orange and then appeared normal again.

I bit my lip before flicking my wand at the wooden stick, transfiguring it into a piece of thin string. I summoned several more toffee apples and repeated the process until I had a whole set of sticky, red apples with string trailing out of them.

I swallowed. Either this was going to go spectacularly right or humiliatingly wrong. I would be Ron Weasley, the boy who thought he could kill Death Eaters by throwing toffee apples at them!

I took a deep breath and gathered the ends of the strings in my hand before lighting them with my wand tip. As the strings burned quickly, I levitated the apples and banished them into the pub, smashing through the glass window in the process.

I clamped my hands over my ears and scrunched my eyes tightly shut before crouching and bracing myself.

One…two…three seconds passed before BOOM!

The pub exploded into flames and there were agonised screams from within that made me feel sick. I could smell burning flesh and tried not to gag. This was justified, I told myself; these people were murderers and would have come out of that pub and slaughtered all those Aurors. Tonks and Shacklebolt, they would have got the Killing Curse in the back without a moment's hesitation from their murderers. I exhaled deeply and pushed myself back to my feet.

My ears were ringing. The screaming had stopped; somebody had run from the pub in flames and dropped to the floor to be put out by a startled Auror, who was covered in the falling debris from the pub, before being arrested and carted away.

I pressed myself flat against the wall and tried to catch my breath.

The Aurors were out in force but the Death Eaters had used the explosion as a distraction and had cast several Confundus Charms that made everybody appear to be wearing Auror robes. Nobody knew who to aim for and who to trust.

"Shit!" I hissed and banged my head on the wall behind me.

Why the hell had I been taken? Was it all a way of diverting attention away from the attack, where it should have been? I panted heavily and plunged my hands into the pockets of the robe I'd taken from Fred and George's place. Surely the twins would have something hidden for times like these.

I pulled out a rubber chicken, obviously one of their trick wands, some experimental looking sweets that I wasn't going to put near my mouth for anything in the world, and a small phial of liquid.

I squinted at it. It looked very familiar. Where had I seen it before?

"Snape's st-" I suddenly gasped as a loud groaning made me shudder and I looked up to see the chimney above me crumbling away and falling.

I ran as if there were spiders on my back and dove, head first, into a Knight bus shelter. I grazed both my palms and knees as somebody screamed from far away. There was a zipping sound and a figure in Auror robes flew backwards and into the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies where they lay, unmoving.

I gripped Hermione's wand in my hand and bit my lip as I squinted across Diagon Alley, the battlefield it had become, and tried to work out how to know who to attack and who to avoid. I saw Hermione running through the streets with my wand in her hand. She was hexing everybody who crossed her path and her eyes were wide and wild.

I swallowed and ducked down so she couldn't see me.

"Hold on," I said, frowning to myself in confusion. "If she's got my wand, then where's the one she had on me a minute ago?"

"I'm going to kill you!" Hermione, no _not_ Hermione screamed fiercely. "You'll be dead before you get the chance to ruin things again, you traitor!"

So she was showing her true colours at last. At least this would make it easier to finish her off. It wouldn't be like cursing my Hermione. This one was full of hate and fury and spite. This witch was nothing like my girl, my friend.

I resolved to take her down.

I gritted my teeth and extended Hermione's stolen wand, expecting to see the Dark witch wearing the Hermione costume before me. What I saw was a silver hand emerging from Auror robes, aiming a wand at a livid looking Hermione. She was threatening him. She was threatening Wormtail.

"_Avada K-"_ He was too fast for her.

But I was closer.

I grabbed his metal wand arm and pointed it upwards to the sky. The spell was sent away from the battle and Wormtail looked into my eyes and glared at me.

"Little Ronald, always standing in the way of greatness, aren't you boy?"

I pointed the wand tip into his face and the superior strength in his silver arm turned it into mine just as it flashed brightly. There was another scream and Wormtail let me go and laughed as I hit the ground hard.

I laughed, too. Amused at the look of realisation on his face as I lay on my back being threatened with a rubber chicken. I drew my real wand, Hermione's wand, and sent a hex flying.

"_Sectusempra_!"

Slashes cut Wormtail across his chest and he fell to his knees in front of me.

"Worthless brat!" he hissed, grabbing me by the throat and ripping Hermione's wand from my fingers.

He tossed the wand aside and held his own to my temple.

_"Cruci-_" Wormtail began but was interrupted by a brilliant, red, lightning bolt hitting him in the chest.

The treacherous wizard screamed out in pain and the Hermione that held my wand in her hand ran towards both of us.

I saw flashes, so many flashes. There were flashes of that long day that was nearing its end. Flashes from spells and shields and hexes lit up the street like fireworks. Flashes of things in my mind trying to show me something.

It was like when I played chess. I would look at the board when my back was against the wall and then flash...flash...flash... I would see my next move, and my opponents and mine on and on until the game was lost. Then back to the boards and the flashes of a different set of moves, and another and another until the flashes eventually led to a winning pattern and I would make that one move...my first move towards victory and my opponent never knew it was coming.

I saw those flashes, my chessboard flashes, only with the street as the boards and the Aurors and Death Eaters as the pieces. Hermione was my Queen, Wormtail was the opposing King, and once again...one last time.

"I'm the knight." I whispered.

Wormtail grabbed me while I was still unarmed and held me before him to use as a shield from any attack Hermione might send his way. She looked furious and terrified.

More flashes.

Hermione held her wand in her hand while I held the same wand in my own. Hermione with mine, battling in the street when I knew I'd secured hers at the twins' place. Hermione kissing me in the morning, then rejecting me when I kissed her back, then the time-turner, then the witch in St Mungo's that tried to lock me up for a day, money stuff and Wormtail and a woman in a side alley who didn't want me hurt but who wanted me off the street...

"She couldn't be seen," I said as it all added up at long last.

I hadn't been watching the game. I'd been thinking about other things. I'd been thinking about kisses and Galleons and jobs on the Knight Bus and charity from Harry and I took my eyes off the bloody board when I should have been paying attention.

"Would she kill her prince to stop me?" Wormtail gurgled thickly in my ear. "Or would she let me go yet again to spare you?"

I gritted my teeth and plunged my hand into my pocket, grabbing a handful of Fred and George's trial merchandise, jamming it down Wormtail's throat.

_ "Stupefy!"_ Hermione called out as she ran towards us, eyes wide with terror.

We both fell to the cobbled pavement hard and the spell whizzed over our heads. Wormtail tried to cut me with several spells but the closest he was able to get was to graze my shoulder. I shoved my handful down the detestable traitor's throat and clamped his mouth closed at the same moment I heard Kingsley Shacklebolt and Tonks yelling out over the crowd.

"Hold your fire! We can't hit the Weasley boy!"

So this was it.

In order to take down the king, the knight had to be sacrificed. The loss of the knight would guarantee victory. The other players would ensure that. One loss would clear the way to take out the king for good and they would have the rage in them to do it.

Just as Wormtail grew fins where his legs should have been and his eyes grew out of their sockets on stalks the coward's silver hand raised his wand at me and uttered a spell through his mouthful of jinxed sweets.

Hermione was screaming. Everything was spinning. I was bleeding, something pierced my side, and then everything became heavy and black.


	16. Chapter 16 Hermione

**Chapter Sixteen**

**by The Steppy One**

It was me.

It had been me all day long. The psychotic wench…was _me_!

Oh, Merlin, Hermione, how could you have not seen it? Only when you're staring yourself in the face do you figure this one out!

But…why?

Obviously, I used the last remaining Time Turner…but…why? What could possibly happen that makes me use the last-

'Oh, sweet Merlin, no!' I whispered.

As the thought crossed my mind, I struggled against my bonds, but it really was no use. Ron was far too good to slip up on a spell like this.

I was resigned to the fact that I was merely a spectator in all of this; I felt sick because I couldn't do anything. I watched the scene unfold before me as if it was playing in slow motion.

I saw myself scream the Stunning Spell at Ron and Wormtail, which missed them both as they tumbled to the floor.

'Hold your fire! We can't hit the Weasley boy!'

I held my breath as several Aurors had their wands pointed at Ron and Wormtail.

Wormtail was starting to transform into…something. I'd seen Ron shove something into his face but I had no idea what it was. Although, by the looks of what was happening to Wormtail, it might have been something from the twins' shop.

One thing wasn't transforming though, his silver hand. It rose from the mass on the floor and held his wand for all to see. The tip flared brightly as I squinted my eyes against the light and turned my head, afraid of what I was going to see, but that didn't stop me from hearing the strangled yells and screams.

I forced myself to turn my head back towards where Ron and Wormtail were lying and then I slowly opened my eyes. The Aurors were slowly closing in around the mass on the floor.

'NO!' Tonks yelled as she stepped one pace closer.

My stomach turned and I put my hand to my mouth to stop myself being physically sick.

Wait, my hand was on my mouth, I was no longer restrained, but then--

'No!' I whispered as I scrambled to my feet. I tried to run forwards but I stumbled a little before regaining my balance.

'He can't be! I didn't get to tell him!' I shouted to anyone who was listening. I was getting closer to the circle of people surrounding Ron and I pushed through it.

I looked down at him; he was lying on his side with his eyes closed, like he was sleeping.

I fell to my knees and leant over him. Everyone around me was quiet as if waiting for my verdict, not that I really noticed. I only had eyes for Ron.

'R…Ron?' I whispered, stroking his fringe out of his eyes.

I sat back a little and looked at the rest of him, searching for any sign of him moving in any way. I glared at his chest, willing it to start moving.

But it didn't.

'No!' I gasped. 'Please…not Ron…not Ron!'

'Somebody check for a pulse!' a voice behind me yelled.

I heard shuffling and then a hand moved into my field of vision. I saw two fingers press into his neck and I held my breath.

'Well?' someone asked frantically.

I looked up at the person in front of me; I vaguely recognised him. He had been at The Burrow before we left to come here.

He looked into my eyes for a second and then lowered his head. It was if I was seeing him shake it from left to right from outside my body. I saw it from all angles and fell a little deeper into despair as I realised there was nothing else he could mean, other than Ron was dead.

He didn't have a pulse; Wormtail had killed Ron.

My Ron was no longer…mine.

A dry sob escaped my mouth and I clamped a hand to my face. The little strength I had in my upper body left me and I slumped forward onto his body.

I sobbed and tears fell from my eyes.

My whole body shook as I tightened my grip on his robes.

'We have to move him,' another Auror said above me.

Someone took hold of the top of my arm firmly and started to pull me back. Before I realised what was happening, they had gripped my other arm and effortlessly picked me up off Ron.

When I realised they were trying to take Ron away from me, I started to struggle.

'No…I won't…I can't leave him.'

'WHERE IS HE?'

I instantly stopped struggling as Arthur's yells reached my ears.

I felt sick again. I didn't want to see Arthur realise his youngest son was dead. I didn't want to see the grief overtake him. But I couldn't take my eyes off him as he ran closer towards me.

At the last second, Kingsley turned and stood in front of him, stopping him from getting to Ron.

'Arthur…he…'

'No! He's fine! He's just unconscious!'

He pushed himself past Kingsley and fell to his knees, looking into my eyes. It was a piercing look, and I think my eyes and my tearstained face told him what he didn't want to know.

When he hit the floor he waved his wand over Ron various times, muttering spells and trying to revive his son.

'Arthur, it's no use…' Kingsley said, walking forward and putting a hand on his shoulder.

Arthur shrugged Kingsley's hand off with a shrug and kept on performing the spells.

'Arthur, stop! He's gone. There's nothing you can do.'

Kingsley had stepped forward and had taken hold of Arthur's wand hand to physically stop him from continuing. It was then that Arthur broke down. I joined him in his sobs.

The person who was restraining me, was now holding me up, my legs had gone from underneath me and my head was spinning.

This wasn't happening--it couldn't happen. We'd fought our war and we'd won. This was our time to start living. We'd done the hard work, now was our time to have a life.

But what I was seeing unfold before my eyes was…wrong. It wasn't supposed to be like this.

It was supposed to be different.

* * *

I sat in the depths of the Ministry and had been in the same position for half an hour. It was standard procedure when someone had been killed in suspicious circumstances. The body would stay here until the cause of death had been determined and an investigation had been performed into why it had occured.

The verdict was death by Avada Kedavra. His various cuts weren't severe enough to have caused him to bleed to death and there were plenty of witnesses that said Wormtail performed a curse, before a Stunner hit him.

Why?

The Body.

Ron's body.

The body of the one I love.

All of the Weasley family had, at some point, been in this room and seen Ron.

He had been cleaned up and placed in this room. It was very calming; I think they'd charmed it to have that effect, although it hadn't worked on Molly. She had come out sobbing so hard I couldn't believe what I saw. I don't think I'd ever seen anyone cry like that before, and I'd seen a lot of people cry.

I had asked to be last to sit with him. Everyone had gone home and it was finally peaceful, apart from my occasional sniffs. I hadn't stopped crying, but now the tears were just sliding down my face.

'I'm sorry, Ron,' I heard myself saying. 'I didn't save you even though…it's obvious I was trying to. Why else would I have gone back in time?'

I'd been thinking of nothing else since I stepped in this room.

I had to change the way things had turned out. I had to save Ron. I had to tell him how I felt and I had to make sure he was a part of my life from now on.

* * *

I'd sat in the Ministry for hours. I didn't realise the time slipping away and no one had disturbed me. I finally left at three in the morning. The guard in the Atrium was asleep when I walked past him and he didn't stir when I threw Floo powder into one of the many fireplaces and said 'Number twelve Grimmauld Place' quietly into the flames.

I opened my eyes when I felt myself tip forward and into the kitchen of the dark house. I sighed, relieved, when I saw there was no one in the room, but heard movement in the floors above. I hurried up the stairs to the room I had gone to that afternoon to sleep and locked the door behind me.

I pulled out a small box from under the bed and opened it. I had put the Time Turner in there earlier, after I had woken up. There was nowhere safer I could put it. I had planned to find somewhere for it long term, but that was no longer necessary.

I pulled out the chain I wore around my neck and unclasped it before sliding the small magical object onto it.

I put the chain back under my robes and looked around the room, looking for things that might help me change Ron's fate.

There was a box of books at the foot of the bed. We'd used them during our Horcrux hunt and it was all I could do not to cry at the memories of Ron as they flooded my mind.

'No, Hermione!' I growled at myself. 'This is not the time! You have to think!'

I spent the next three hours searching the books for any piece of information that might help me, but I realised it was my own mind that would be the source of all the information I'd need.

Wormtail was planning an attack. I had to stop him.

It was coming up to twenty-two hours that I'd been awake, but I felt no trace of tiredness. The adrenaline pumping through me made me feel as awake as I'd ever felt.

At half-past six precisely, I pulled the chain out from under my robes and stared at the Time Turner. It had been years since I'd seen one up close and once again, I had to fight back the memories of Ron flooding my mind. Now was not the time to become distracted.

I held my breath and remembered the words said to me at Gringotts that morning.

_'Send it spinning.'_

'Send it spinning?' I replied. 'Don't you need to be more specific than that?'

'No. It's been made to work in one way, and one way only. All you need to do is activate it. Set it away spinning – quickly – and it'll do the rest itself. But remember, Miss Granger, you must not be seen!'

I must not be seen.

I don't intend to be. Wormtail won't know what's hit him.

I took a deep breath and put my finger against the tiny hourglass.

'Three – two – one.'

I pushed the hourglass with some force and felt the effects immediately.

Everything around me starting spinning. I closed my eyes and saw Ron stand in front of me grinning. The vision in my mind's eye faded into him lying on the floor dead.

I opened my eyes and stared at my surroundings.

'I'll save you, Ron. If it's the last thing I do, I'll save you.'

* * *

_A/N Before you form a lynch mob we'd like to point out that this is the half way point of the story._

_We had dinner together in London last night and discussed our relief that you will all now unnderstand things a little better as you read on. Behaviour and confusing situations will make more sense._

_But will she be able to change it this time around?_

_Solstice and Steppy_


	17. Chapter 17 Ron

**Chapter Seventeen**

**by Solstice Muse**

Mum was shouting for me to come down for breakfast.

Why can't breakfast be in the afternoon?

She'd be up soon if I didn't start moving about. She had a routine of charging into my room without knocking, stomping her feet as loudly as she could, drawing the curtains wide open and pulling all the covers off me while threatening me with all sorts of hexes if I didn't '_Get a wriggle on'_.

With a groan, I rolled myself out of my cocoon of warmth and softness to set my bare feet down upon the scratchy rug beside my bed and set off to the bathroom to set about my new morning routine.

Into the bathroom, lock the door and cast a silencing charm, fart loudly. I opened a window and chuckled to myself. I'll never stop finding farts funny. Then I stood before the toilet and peed while yawning deeply. Then I swore and lifted the toilet seat mid-flow. This only caused even more mess so I finished off and then cast a quick cleansing charm over my 'spillage' and flushed.

I washed my hand and set about cleaning my teeth. Mum was climbing the stairs, I could hear her, she could never walk anywhere lightly that woman.

"Ron? Ronald Weasley?" she called as she passed the bathroom and headed up to my bedroom to abuse me.

She couldn't hear the water running through the silencing charm. I spat my mouthful of toothpaste out and flicked my wand at the door to lift the charm just as I heard her stomping back and muttering to herself.

"In there are you? Good boy. I have an omelette for you if you fancy eggs?"

"Give it to Dad," I called out as I avoided looking myself in the mirror.

"He's gone to work already."

"Well, have you eaten?" I asked her.

"Not yet. I'm waiting for you."

"Well, you have my omelette and I'll have some toast. I have to meet Hermione for Dumbledore's thing soon."

"I'll put jam on your toast," she said as she set off back down the stairs.

"Not red jam!" I found myself shouting urgently.

She sounded as if she was giving me a singsong response to let me know she'd heard me. It didn't appear that she'd picked up on my tone. That was something. As far as Mum was concerned, I was okay now. Only Dad knew. Dad knew everything really; he was just better at playing ignorant than anybody gave him credit for.

I opened the bathroom cabinet and stared at the bottle of potion with my name on it.

_Ronald Bilius Weasley_

_To be taken every morning until advised otherwise._

_Side effects can involve mood swings and paranoia._

I hate that bloody potion.

It tastes vile, like banana mixed with earwax and covered in stink sap, and it looks like vomit. I couldn't believe it when the Healer gave it to me before I left hospital. I hadn't been too badly hurt, no worse than anybody else; definitely no worse than Harry had been. The thing was I would always get worked up. Well, I was never placid before really, and would get into a state about the stupidest things.

The twins made one of their off-handed comments when they came to visit me and I actually took it to heart. They liked winding me up to get me angry or to make me laugh but they'd never been met with silence as a reaction to their teasing before.

Hermione would sit with me at Harry's bedside and read the _Prophet_ out loud. I couldn't read for longer than three paragraphs without getting a splitting headache at first. I see blood when I see jam or jelly or anything vividly red. When I actually saw blood, cutting myself shaving of all things, I fainted. The twins teased me about fainting. I clamed up for the rest of the day and everybody worried.

A Healer dropped a cauldron outside my ward one afternoon. I remember hearing the loud clunk. I remember jumping with a start at the sound of it. I remember my heart beating so hard I pressed my hands against my chest to keep it from bursting open. I don't remember getting out of bed. I don't remember climbing out of the fifth floor window. I definitely don't remember shimmying down the drainpipe and hiding in some bushes in the medical botanical garden.

My dad was holding on to me and rocking me from side to side slowly. He was talking to me softly and telling me it was going to be alright and they were going to give me something to keep me from being so jumpy. I didn't know I was jumpy. I didn't know why I was in my pyjamas in the middle of some shrubbery. I had no idea where my dad had come from. He said later that he was coming to visit me and saw me sliding past the window on the second floor.

Mum knew I had a problem but Dad was the one who really knew how bad it was. Harry and Hermione thought I was on the potion for the headaches and the nausea. I let them think that. I let them think I wasn't on it any more, too.

The Healer said I had Post Traumatic Stress disorder. It was something Muggles get. I don't know how I caught it; maybe a Muggle sneezed near me or something.

The potion, revolting as it was, did work. The only problem was the side effects. They really did a number on me. I never knew I was being unreasonable until after the fact. I would snap and say hurtful things. What was worse, I would find myself thinking that everybody was judging me harshly for my erratic behaviour.

I always felt like I'd put my foot in it and before I got the chance to apologise to the person I'd upset would think I wasn't worth it and write me off. Mum would let it wash over her, but she had to love me no matter what so that didn't count, and Dad understood so he would just let me ride it out and see the slump hit me and give me a wink so I knew he wasn't angry with me.

What I wanted more than anything else in the world was to just stop having to take the bloody potion every morning. I wanted this shit to go away and to just be my usual self. Not that I wasn't moody and self-deprecating but the old me wouldn't go for the throat without provocation.

So that was my life after the final battle, either climbing out of windows with no memory of doing so or arguing with people one minute and kicking myself the next, from unaware to hyper-aware with one swallow.

"Ron?" Mum called up the stairs to me.

"Yeah, coming," I shouted back.

I pulled the bottle out of the bathroom cabinet and took my daily swig.

"Better to know I'm messing my day up than be oblivious to my anarchy," I shrugged after gulping down the disgusting slop.

* * *

While I chomped on my toast with greengage preserve--Mum _does_ listen from time to time--I lazily scanned my mail.

There was the usual rubbish from the _Daily Prophet_ asking if I had any comment on the latest person testifying that I had really died in the final battle and was an employee of the Ministry Polyjuiced into look like Ron Weasley until Harry Potter was well enough to cope with the news of my death. _Witch Weekly_ asked me if I had anything to say about the story Lavender Brown sold to them about our tumultuous love affair and the harlot Hermione Granger who had stolen me away from her.

Mum had the waste paper basket floating at my side, ready to catch the balled up parchment as I threw it over my shoulder with an annoyed huff. I took another large bite of toast and jam before unrolling an official looking parchment and reading with a heavy heart.

"Any luck?" Mum asked with a smile.

"Mr Weasley, blah blah, unfortunately, blah blah, medical condition, blah blah, unable to offer you the job at this time," I said in a monotone.

"Oh dear," Mum frowned. "Somebody really should have a word with those Healers who are telling all these people that you are still under treatment. It's costing you so many good jobs."

I didn't look at her as I sucked on my bottom lip, still sour from my potion.

"Yeah, well maybe there's a cooling off period before you're considered all clear or something," I muttered.

"Oh but still…" she said, fussing with the washing up with her back to me.

I threw the letter into the waste paper bin and tore open the next one.

_Well, look at that._

I was actually employable.

"They want me on the Knight Bus."

"Oh…well…isn't that…? Oh, well done, Ronnie." Mum shook the suds off her hands and took a step towards me.

I got up from the table and stuffed the letter from Hogwarts into my pocket.

"Gotta go meet Hermione and then we're off to see Harry. I'll tell him you said hi."

She was trying to call me back to finish my tea and toast but I was pulling on my cloak and heading out the door to Disapparate.

Just before I left, I pulled the Hogwarts letter out of my pocket and ripped it open.

_Dear Mr Weasley,_

_I'm afraid the avenue you suggested is not one we are able to explore._

_The financial assistance fund can only be used to fund students of school age._

_I am looking into some way of helping you back to Hogwarts to complete your education. Don't give up hope yet, Mr Weasley._

_Yours,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

Great.

I wasn't going back to school. I wasn't getting any of the jobs I wanted. The wizarding world was being told, via tabloids, that I was really dead yet a fantastic snogger.

A perfect start to a perfect day.


	18. Chapter 18 Hermione

**Chapter Eighteen**

**by The Steppy One**

I checked my watch like I had done four times in the past ten seconds. Needless to say, it hadn't moved very far. It read seven forty-seven. I was due in Gringotts in thirteen minutes. I would arrive at the bank in three.

Sure enough, three minutes later, there I was, walking briskly down the street, head bowed against the wind, brow furrowed in concentration.

I'm always concentrating on something. Why is it so hard for me to relax?

I know the answer to that one; when you're in the throes of a war it's hardly the time to relax, is it? We were still getting used to our freedom. If we're truly honest with ourselves, we weren't really expecting it. Not that we'd ever admit that of course, but when you're on your own, looking at a task that seems impossible, with only your own concentration and your own determination to get you through whatever lies before you, it's not surprising that you expect the worst. Self-doubt does that to you.

It was at work in me now, too. As I watched myself walk through the double doors and into the wizarding bank, a shiver went through me and my knees buckled. I fell onto the wall that I was standing next to but somehow managed to gather the strength I needed to stop myself falling to the ground.

I can't do it.

I can't do this! How do I know what to do? How do I know that anything I do won't make things a hell of a lot worse?

It's too hard.

It's just too hard.

A sob caught in my throat and I wheezed, trying to get air into my lungs. But the panic that coursed through me wouldn't let me and I felt my throat start to constrict as the tears fell from my eyes. I turned towards the wall and leant my forehead against the cold hard, stone.

__

Breathe Hermione, you have to breathe!

Like I don't know that! It's just getting my head to stop thinking harrowing thoughts that's the problem.

I just can't stop seeing him lying on the wet ground, cold, eyes closed, dead.

I sobbed again and clamped a hand to my mouth. Instinctively, I moved further down the alley I was hiding in, just in case anyone heard me and came looking.

I tried to take a few deep breaths, well, deeper than I had managed so far and one or all of them started to work slightly. I finally lifted my head and stepped back to my previous position, one that had as wider view of Diagon Alley as I could risk. A hooded figure in an alleyway was not something to be in Diagon Alley in the present climate; it was an invitation for instant arrest.

That was hardly something I could afford.

I looked up from the ground and what I saw took my breath away.

Ron.

Ron walking down the street in much the same way I had. His pace was more like a stroll but his brow was furrowed like mine had been. He looked worried about something.

My mind shifted into gear.

Of course, he was worried about something; he had no money to pay for his final year at school.

If I wake up tomorrow and the only thing I have to deal with is Ron being moody about his financial situation, I'll shout and scream with delight.

I watched him walk down the street and my heart jumped. Merlin, even him looking like a grumpy sod makes me feel like this. I couldn't stop looking at him, the way his fringe flopped down into his eyes, his numerous freckles that annoyed him silly when the sun was out and made a few merge together, making 'monster freckles' as Harry called them. His hands were in his pockets and he was hunched against the wind, much like I had been.

I felt more tears escape my eyes. He was beautiful; there was no other way to describe him. From his hair to his freckles to his stubbornness and excessive swearing, he was just…perfect.

Before I knew what I was doing, I felt myself walk forwards towards him. He had passed the entrance to the alleyway and was walking through the street, still at a leisurely pace. I followed him and, again, before I knew what I was doing, heard myself call out his name.

'Ron!'

For some reason, I held my breath as I watched him turn around, like I was expecting it not to be him.

'Hermione! What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at the bank?' he asked me.

I just stared at him; I took in every inch of his face, every hair falling into his eyes, every millimetre of stubble that obviously hadn't bothered to shave this morning and then every different shade of blue in his eyes.

I think I took a step closer to him. I wasn't thinking about anything else but him.

'Hermione…are you all right? You're being…_weird_!'

His voice brought me back down to earth.

'Er, yeah…yeah I'm fine.'

I was anything but fine.

'I just needed to…'

What did I need to do exactly? I needed to say something to him; that was certain, he was starting to get confused.

'Hermione has something happened? Has someone hurt you?'

His eyes widened slightly. If…_no_… _when_ I save him from that murderous rat and I get annoyed at him for something stupid and insignificant I'll remember this, the way he _always_ wants to defend me from anyone who wanted to do me harm.

I cleared my throat.

'No, no, nothing like that. Sorry, I was miles away…thinking about…things.'

He smirked.

'When are you not?'

I laughed and joined him in his smile. I hadn't smiled in hours.

'So…did you want something? 'Cause you're gonna be late for the meeting.'

'What? Oh! Yes of course! I just wanted to tell you something. I-'

My voice caught in my throat.

__

Some Gryffindor you are, Hermione!

I took a deep breath.

'I just wanted to say that I…I like you Ron…'

How vague can you be Hermione? I mean really!

He smiled a confused smile.

'Well, I'd hope so Hermione. We're best friends!'

Time for the less subtle approach. I felt myself grow hot, even the thought of what I was about to do was making me blush.

'No I mean…Ron, I like you more than that…'

I stepped forward so there was barely any space between us and ran my hands up and down his arms.

He was standing here with me. He was really here. I really had a second chance at getting things right.

It took him by surprise when I hugged him. I squeezed him tightly to me as if my life depended on it and after a quiet few seconds I felt his arms wrap around my waist.

'Hermione…what?' he said quietly in my ear.

In response, I hugged him tighter. I think I was stopping him breathing properly, but he didn't flinch or move, he just let me hold him.

I broke away from him even though it caused me actual physical pain to do so. My stomach contracted and turned over. I didn't want to let him go.

'Hermione are you going to tell me-?'

I caught him off guard by closing the gap between us once again, but this time I kissed him.

I knew he was expecting me to pull back instantly so I carried on kissing him, gently but with purpose. I'd make sure he knew how I felt. Eventually, he started to kiss me back, cautiously, as if he was double-checking this was real and not a joke.

I ran my fingers through his hair and pulled him slightly closer to me. His grip around my waist tightened and he deepened the kiss. I couldn't help but smile against his lips and I knew he was trying not to do the same.

A loud crash of dustbin lids made us both jump and we broke apart, breathing heavily. I looked into his eyes and he stared into mine. I cursed myself when I felt tears fill them.

'So _that's _what you meant? I mean…when you said 'more than that', you meant you want to be…more than friends?'

'I'd like nothing more.'

He smiled his cheeky smile but then his brow furrowed.

'Er…I hate to say this but, shouldn't you be in your meeting?'

I sighed. 'Yes…yes, I should.'

'We're still having breakfast though aren't we, after you're done?'

'Yes we are! I'll see you after the show!'

The words rattled around my head and I had to close my eyes. Images ran through my mind.

__

'I'll send someone to get you after I've found that snivelling little traitor Wormtail.'

__

'Enjoy the show!'

The show.

Ron was kissing me.

He was grabbing my hands behind my back.

Spinning me round and binding my hands and feet.

Lying on the ground.

Dead.

'Well, go on then!' he said playfully.

'I'm going!' I said in as natural voice I could.

'See you later,' he said with a wave.

Later.

Oh Merlin!

'_Ron!_' I screeched as he started to turn away.

'What?' he asked, still smiling.

'I mean it you know. I really do…whatever hap-…whatever I say…I…I mean it.'

'Okay. I believe you! Now go!'

He checked his watch.

'You're officially late!'

I smiled as I watched him turn around. I did the same and walked back in the direction of the bank. I checked over my shoulder before ducking back into the alley I had spent a large proportion of the morning in, just watching and waiting.

So…now what do I do?


	19. Chapter 19 Ron

**Chapter Nineteen**

**by Solstice Muse**

I leaned back against the wall of Gringotts and found myself seized with unstoppable giggles.

Where the hell had that come from?

Hermione kissed me. Hermione said she liked me. Hermione said she liked me in a more than friendly way.

I licked my lips and smiled to myself like a concussed Lockhart. She tasted so warm and her tongue was like velvet being rubbed the wrong way. There was salt on her lips and her breath was so hot and intense.

She just kissed me, out of the blue, for no reason. Hermione Granger wanted me. My stomach flipped over and I felt the need to sit down. Then I felt the need to Floo to Hogwarts and tell Ginny. Oh, Harry was going to be all weird with us, wasn't he? Maybe we'd be quiet about it for now. Yeah, we should just get used to it ourselves until we're ready to…

"Oh shit, I didn't say it back!"

I stared straight ahead and slapped myself on the forehead. I never told Hermione that I liked her, too. She'd told me and kissed me and said we were…well, a 'we' and I'd just…

What had I done?

I couldn't really remember. I was just swept up in the moment. I'd gone from a total loser who couldn't get a job and hadn't finished school and was taking a potion to suppress my inner 'nutter' to publicly snogging my best mate in the street for all to see.

"Right, shall we be off, then?" Hermione suddenly said briskly from behind me.

I turned around and beamed at her. I wasn't sure if I should give her a cuddle, take her hand, or just blurt out that I felt the same way, too, and that I was happy for the first time in ages. Hermione seemed distracted as she stuffed something into her robe and looked up at me, waiting for my answer.

"Um, we're going to get breakfast now, yeah?" I asked her, my smile melting into a slightly more anxious frown.

Oh crap, she was pissed off at me because I didn't say I liked her, too.

"That sounds lovely," Hermione said, still acting neither friendly nor annoyed.

"So what did you get from Dumbledore, then?" I decided to work my way up to the relationship talk.

Maybe when we were sitting in some cosy café with nice hot tea and crumpets, I could let her know that this was what I wanted. _She_ was what I wanted. I'd always thought that we should give it a try but I'd never suggested it to her. I was afraid she would either laugh in my face, thinking it was a joke, or give me a pitying look and tell me I was nothing more than a friend to her. On top of everything else, I couldn't handle a rejection from Hermione as well. Strangers could decide I wasn't worth employing. People on the street could see me as nothing but a gateway to get to Harry Potter. McGonagall could tell me that there was nothing she could do to help me get my N.E.W.T.s, but for me to hear Hermione telling me I wasn't good enough for her would have been too much.

But she _did _want me. My stomach flipped back over again and I screamed at myself to just sod it and take her hand. She'd know what it meant. She'd know it was my way of showing her that I was happy about this, happy and comfortable and very, very pleased. Maybe I could even tell her about the Post Traumatic Stress thing. Hermione was a Muggle, she would understand. She was clever, too, maybe she could help me get off the potion and get a grip on things again.

"I'm afraid that's going to have to remain my business, Ronald." Hermione said as she marched off ahead of me. "So where do you want to go? I think Cumshaws are open again after the looting during the war."

Oh Merlin, she was pissed off with me!

"I don't mind," I said as I bounded after her and tried to grab for her hand.

Our knuckles clashed and she turned and huffed at me.

"Ron, what _are_ you doing?"

"I was just…"

"I think we need to get something warm inside us and then get to Harry. Let's not dawdle."

I had no idea what to make of this. She seemed to happy when she went into the bank and now she was…it was like…I was just me again. Something had happened in the bank that made her think I was suddenly not worth the effort.

"So, you need to talk to Harry about Dumbledore's will then, eh?" I said as nonchalantly as I could.

"I told you I can't talk about that, especially not out here on the street." Hermione stopped outside a nearby café and grabbed me by the arm to shove me over to the counter. "Tea and crumpets alright with you, Ron?"

"Hermione, are you going to tell me what's changed since you went into the bank or do I just have to guess?" I snapped.

My mood swings are like being on a roller coaster. I can see the next big drop coming before it happens but there's nothing I can do to stop it.

"It's none of your business!" Hermione hissed at me as she took a seat at a table near the window. "Honestly, it's as if you only offered to come along with me to find out what was going on. Here I was thinking you wanted to wait for me for the pleasure of my company."

So that was it. That's what she thought of me. She tested me before. The kiss was just to see if I said I liked her more than a friend before she got her inheritance and because I hadn't said it, she thought I was only warming up to her now because she was loaded.

"Sir?" the witch behind the counter smiled.

"Um, two teas and two lots of toasted crumpets, buttered," I said distractedly. "Got any jam?"

"We'll bring them to your table with a selection of jams and marmalades, sir. Three Sickles, please."

"Three?" I said, feeling as if Hermione's point would be humiliatingly proved if I had to ask her to pay for her own bloody crumpet.

I plunged my hand into my pocket and silently begged the Hogwarts founders and Merlin himself to let me have enough on me. I pulled a handful of change out of my pocket.

"There's two and," I tried not to blush, "is it okay if I give you the rest in Knuts?"

The witch smiled at me.

"That's fine, sir. We can always use small change, no problem at all."

Small change. Everything I had was small change to the rest of the wizarding world, even to a waitress in a tiny little café. I was almost tempted to ask her if there were any jobs going but a tiny house-elf was nudging me away from the counter towards our table.

"You is to sits, sir, sits with yous' friend and I brings to you!"

"Yeah, okay."

"Um, Grottle," the witch said with a weary shake of the head, "let the man take his teas with him and go and attend to the crumpets. Make sure they don't burn."

I added plenty of milk to one tea and a splash to the other then picked up the two teas and set off toward Hermione.

"There you go," I said as I set her tea down and made her jump.

"Oh, thank you, Ron," she blinked and looked into the cup with some degree of surprise. "You didn't over milk it."

"Well, I've known you long enough by now to know how you like your tea, haven't I?" I huffed as I sat down.

And so it began. We argued and I said lots of things that made me feel like a right bastard and made her look as if I'd just punched her in the face and eaten her cat.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For...everything...ever!"

"Ron, you have been strange ever since I came out of that meeting at Gringotts. What has got into you?" Hermione demanded.

It was all about Gringotts. I knew it. I should have said it back. I should have done something before she went in. Was it too late to reciprocate her feelings now?

Leaning over the table I reached for her in exactly the same way she head reached for me before. I held her close to me, either she was flushing with embarrassment or I had squished a hot crumpet between the two of us, and I angled my head and kissed her back.

Immediately, something felt different. It was as if she didn't want me to be doing it at first, then she warmed up to it and kissed me back a little nervously. It was odd. There had been so much passion when she had kissed me but this time…it felt like it was the first time she'd ever kissed me, not the second. She was staring at me with wide eyes as I broke away and looked her in the eyes with as much sincerity I could project for her to see.

"I really like you, too..."

Hermione shoved me away with both hands.

"You think that's funny, do you?" she said, refusing to meet my eyes anymore. "Contrary to popular myth, when a woman tells you you're an insufferable prat, it sometimes simply means you are an insufferable prat!"

Well, there you have it. I was too late. Hermione thought I only cared about the money she got from Dumbledore and not her at all. Hermione thought I was that kind of a person.

On top of everything else…Hermione had rejected me. I could never talk to her about all my problems, school, jobs, and especially not money, not now. Not ever.

* * *

I pulled on my cloak and tried to spot Hermione as she stomped down the road with her hood up.

Do you have any idea how bloody difficult it is to follow a black-robed figure with their hood up on a street full of other black-robed figures with their hoods up?

It was raining and I 'excused me' all the way along the street, rain getting in my eyes and flattening my hair to my face. There was really no point to putting my hood up at all now, not that I would have done anyway. I always feel a little claustrophobic completely covered in black apart from my face. It's like I can barely breathe.

"Where is she?" I grumbled to myself as I peered over the bobbing heads to see if I could pick out Hermione's 'I'm so pissed off with you right now' walk.

"I'm here," she said as she stepped out of a side alley and pulled me close, her eyes were filled with tears and I felt like even more of a shit for making her cry. "I'm sorry!"

She hugged me tightly and sniffed into my chest.

"Look, I was surprised when you kissed me. I would have said it back before I knew about the money, I swear," I began as her body shuddered against mine.

"Don't!" she snapped as she pulled away from me and wiped her eyes, stepping back towards the street and pulling her hood back up again. "Don't ever think that's why I'm cross with you. I would never think you'd prostitute yourself just to pay for…just for money. Never think I didn't…that I don't…Oh God, I shouldn't be doing this!"

She turned and ran back into the crowd again. I felt like my head was spinning on my shoulders. So what was that about? Did she want me? Didn't she want me? Did she like or dislike the kiss? Should I do it again or never speak of it and carry on just as friends?

I followed her out into the street, having lost sight of her yet again, and shoved my hands into my pockets. The wind battered rain into my face and I turned away from it as I ploughed on through the sheets of water. I knew where she was going. I'd catch her up, eventually.

I neared the end of the alleyway and heard a tut. It wasn't worth looking around. I could do without another person telling me what a git I was.

"Ron!"

I jumped and looked up. It sounded like Hermione again. Why did she keep doing that? I squinted around through the rain for her.

"Is there a reason why you just ignored me?" she shouted at me over the rain but she seemed to have got her second wind of being pissed off.

Perhaps I was supposed to have chased her rather than trudging dejectedly behind. There was clearly nothing I could do right.

"Yes! I didn't bloody well see you, that's why! I was trying to keep the rain out of my eyes by looking at the ground. Is that alright with you?"

"You could have put your hood up! Then you wouldn't have needed to stare intently at the ground.'

"And I thought _I_ was the one with the mood swings," I mumbled under my breath.


	20. Chapter 20 Hermione

_A/N From this chapter onward we are struggling away without a beta so please forgive any bad grammar!_

**Chapter Twenty**

**by The Steppy One**

_'But remember, Miss Granger, you must not be seen!'_

The words rattled around my head as I stood still, heart pounding and eyes closed to the world.

I had been stood in the alleyway I had run into after talking to Ron again, and confusing him even more, for a few minutes now, and unfortunately I wasn't in any state to do anything else but stand.

I was leant against the wall and I was shaking uncontrollably. I tried to take some deep breaths to calm me down but it wasn't working. I just couldn't get the image of Ron looking hurt and upset out of my head.

_'Which p…part of "you must not be seen" didn't you un…understand Hermione?'_ I asked myself through the tears that were still pouring down my face.

And not just once had I ignored the golden rule of time travel, but twice.

Twice. Two whole times.

I'll let myself off for the first one. I challenge anyone to be able to just stand and watch as someone you've seen killed a few hours earlier walks right past you.

Especially when you've only just realised how you feel about them.

Even more so when you didn't get to tell them what you've discovered.

I shook my head trying to get those thoughts from my head. I was wasting time and that was something I couldn't afford to do.

Ron's life was at stake.

Harry's favourite phrase came to mind - _No pressure then!_

My plan was simple. I just had to keep him safe. If I kept him away from Diagon Alley at the time of the attack then everything would turn out fine.

There was one thing in my favour; I knew where he was going to be for the most part of the day. So finding him wasn't going to be a problem.

I wiped my eyes and face with my cloak sleeve and stepped out of the alleyway. After a few seconds of hurried walking I spotted Ron's darkened hair in the distance. His head was still bowed against the rain, although it was stopping now. I hurried forward again, splashing through puddles without realising until the cold water seeped through my socks to my feet.

A witch tried to step in front of me offering me some heather and a palm reading for a sickle, but I side stepped her and ignored her mumblings of curses and bad fortune once she saw I wasn't stopping and taking her up on her offer. As if I'd listen to any of the rubbish she spouts.

Superstitious is something I'm not. Divination is…well…woolly is the polite way of putting it. True seers are few and far between and I have a feeling if the woman who was still shouting curses at my back _was_ a true seer, she wouldn't lower herself to this.

I wondered if Ron had been subjected to this, probably not, he was good at weaving in and out of crowds to avoid those he didn't want to talk to. He'd probably have listened to her if she had managed to grab a hold of his arm, as much as he denied it, he always listened with half an ear to anyone who claimed to have seer blood in them. He'd listen to her.

_He'd listen to her_.

A plan formed in my head in a second and I scanned the street to my right. There was a small gap between two of the shops and I ducked into it.

This was becoming a habit.

I apparated on the spot and thought solely about the small lane between Fred and George's shop and the one next to it. I arrived and peered out, squinting through the drizzle for the darker shade of red Ron's hair had turned from the pouring rain. I panicked when I couldn't see him, but then a tall figure moved to their left and there he was.

I pulled my wand out of my robes and waved it over my clothes and my hair. I wasn't too keen on transfiguring my facial features, I was out of practice, so I opted for a light aging spell, hoping that would do the trick and that Ron wouldn't look too closely at me.

I stepped quickly through the crowd and stole a glance up the street to where Ron was. I walked forward and timed my steps so I would meet him before he turned the corner to the apparation point.

'Tell your fortune love?' I croaked at him, trying to sound as old as my now grey hair gave the impression I was.

He looked up from the ground and a frown appeared on his face.

'Er…not today thanks,' he mumbled trying to step around me.

'Won't take long love,' I replied, trying to be insistent without coming across as aggressive.

'Er…I haven't got any money for it,' he replied, quieter than he had mumbled his earlier response.

'No, no, I…I don't want any money; I just want you to listen to what I have to say. I do this…to help people.'

I think my desperation was coming through in my tone, because he stopped for a second and tried to look into my eyes. I quickly dropped my head and took the smallest step backwards.

'No…really…I have to go, I'm late…I have to go and see my friend. He's not well.'

Well he wasn't lying, but I'd love to see Harry's reaction at Ron calling him 'not well'.

My shoulders slumped as he walked away from me.

'Ron!' I croaked loudly, desperately trying to stop him from walking away from me. I had to warn him…somehow.

He flinched as he heard his name and took a quick glance back at me before quickening his pace and turning the corner to the apparation point.

Knowing my cause was lost I turned and hurried back to the lane besides Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. I re-transfigured my clothes and countered the aging spell.

I took a deep breath and tried to think of what else I could do.

I knew where he was going, the hospital, the question was, how would knowing _that_ help me.

Why would you need to be detained in a hospital? Illness is normally a good reason, or testing, or maybe as a precaution if there was an outbr-

Instantly I apparated to the hospital. As soon as I opened my eyes I took a deep breath, I hadn't checked if Ron and I had apparated here yet.

_Calm down Hermione!_ Rushing will _not_ help what you have to achieve.

I searched the area outside the hospital and saw Ron talking to the paper seller.

And there I was, glaring at him.

I felt a twinge of anger rise inside me, why couldn't I give him a break? Why am I always on his case about some small tiny insignificant 'problem' which isn't really a problem? Apparently it's only one to an unreasonable and uptight person like me.

I pulled my hood up as I walked past myself and hurried to the window. I stepped up to the glass and went to speak to the half dressed dummy.

'Hermi-…er…' I cleared my throat and thought desperately for a name I could use. If I used mine then the other me wouldn't be allowed in, then there would be a search for the person who was using her- _my_ name and I might be caught.

'Scarlet…Crookshanks,' I blurted out, 'to see Harry Potter.'

_Scarlet Crookshanks?_ I'd analyse that one later.

I looked up at the dummy and she nodded her head an inch and I walked through the glass. With a last look over my shoulder I saw Ron and myself walking towards me. I had to act fast.

I hurried through the reception area and through the first double doors. I turned the sharp left into the ladies toilets and quickly transfigured my robes into what I remembered the Mediwitches and wizards' robes looking like. I conjured a facemask and pulled it on. Once again it, thankfully, removed the need to transfigure my facial features.

I pushed through the door to the toilet and peered through the glass in the double doors, just in time to watch Ron slip over and pull me down with him. I had to smile; it was quite funny to watch. If I'd been thinking rationally I'd have realised that myself. Instead I felt justified in being even more annoyed with him.

The flame of anger reignited inside me but again I ignored it, I had other things to think about.

I took the stairs two at a time, something made slightly more difficult by the nurses uniform I was wearing.

I was out of breath when I reached the floor that had become Harry's home.

'Funny! FUNNY!' I heard myself screech at the bottom of the stairs.

I had a few seconds before I came storming up them and through the doors to Harry's ward.

Sure enough, there I went, huffing and puffing and still slightly red from embarrassment. I held my breath as I waited for Ron.

He rounded the corner and I stepped forward.

'Mr Weasley,' I said lightly as he was about to push the door open.

Ron turned and looked into my eyes. I found myself holding my breath.

'Huh?' he replied.

'I'm afraid there's been a problem with a highly contagious infection on this floor and you're going to have to go into quarantine for twenty-four hours. Here, come with me.'

I pulled him towards the small room that I had been stood in front of.

'You what? But…'

I ignored his confused pleas and kept a tight hold of his forearm. I pulled out my wand from my transfigured robes and cast the unlocking spell on the handle. It didn't work, neither did the numerous other unlocking spells I tried on it.

'Oh bother!' I exclaimed.

I felt Ron trying to move away from me, I had to keep up the act if this was going to work.

'Well, no matter, we'll try the quarantine area next door shall we?'

I pulled him to the next door which I remembered being a large private room. I pulled the door open and my jaw dropped. It wasn't a private room, it was a broom cupboard.

I couldn't help but physically wilt where I stood. He'd work out I wasn't who I was pretending to be. I'd blown my chance.

'Are you maybe a bit lost?' he asked me quietly and calmly. He could be so caring.

I nodded, there was no point in pretending I knew what I was doing.

'Did you go for a walk from your…special ward?'

And now he thinks I'm insane.

'No!' I replied before thinking about it.

I looked at the small space inside the broom cupboard and a fleeting thought past through my mind. Before I, or Ron realised what I was doing I grabbed him and tried my hardest to push him into the cupboard.

'Oi! What is your problem? Why are you picking on me?'

'You're infected and you need to be locked away for twenty four hours, now do as you're told Mr Weasley!' I screeched too loudly.

I needed to keep him safe, _I had to!_

Whatever it took.

'How do you know my bloody name?' he asked me as he pushed himself past me and back into the corridor.

No! He wasn't getting away that easily.

I pushed him against the wall. I had to make him understand he wasn't safe.

'If I don't lock you away until tomorrow you could die!'

I tried to fight the tears forming in my eyes but I couldn't. I felt myself start to panic again and I fell against Ron. I inhaled his smell and clung onto him. I couldn't let him go. I needed to keep him safe.

'You know what?' he asked before pausing. 'I'll go into that ward for my quarantine and you can sit with me to make sure I don't…run off or something. We'll pull the ropey thingy to call for another Healer and we'll both talk to her about this quarantine thing, okay?'

He was going to take me into the ward.

I stepped backwards, I had to leave now.

'I'm sorry!' I sobbed as I pushed my way through the double doors and ran down the stairs. I fell through the toilet door and fumbled for my wand. I turned my disguise back into my robes and walked as calmly as I could through the foyer.

It was only as I was walking back through the glass that I realised I hadn't put my hood up. Anyone in there could have seen me.

I pushed the thought aside. It wasn't important.

There was only one thing that was important.

I had to think of another way to save Ron.

My Ron.


	21. Chapter 21 Ron

**Chapter Twenty One**

**by Solstice Muse**

Well I'm having a brilliant day!

Hermione wants me...Hermione's sickened by me...Hermione's pissed off with me. Now some random nut case wants to lock me in a cupboard. I suppose I shouldn't have turned her down so quickly. Sex slave to a war-damaged witch could be a step up from pathetic virgin reject. I shoved the doors open and stomped into Harry' private ward, doing my best not to engage Hermione in any form of argument with something as simple as a glance. I tried to shake off the strange encounter in the corridor and gave Harry a smile that didn't seem to do anything other than cause Harry to frown at me. He always said he could see a fake smile from me with his eyes closed. Apparently when I smile you can feel it as well as see it. I thought he'd hit his head when he said it that time after Quidditch but Hermione had agreed with him and there had been a very long conversation about all my different smiles. I had to get up and go somewhere else for a few minutes before my intense blush set my hair alight. Neville never discusses my illumionus smile...he just says stuff like, 'Oh you seem happy', I can deal with that!

I pulled up a chair beside Hermione and nodded to Harry, attempting to illuminate my mile with genuine happiness.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked me immediately.

I really am shit at hiding my emotions aren't I?

I squirmed in my seat and felt the Prophet digging into my side.

"You alright mate?" I asked Harry as I wrenched the paper out of my robes and flattened it out.

"Answer Hermione's question,' Harry said, pulling his stern face.

"Nothing really," I shrugged before realising that my open book face wasn't going to hide my bad day, "just…some witch from the…not-quite-right-in-the-head ward escaped and was wandering around out in the stairwell." I tried to make it sound like an inconvenience rather than the latest in a string of crap events I had to wade through so far today, "She was upset and…she somehow knew my name. Just…weird…bit unnerving.'

"Where is she now?" Hermione asked with a soft tone as she lowered her head to look into my averted eyes.

"She ran away after a few minutes. Not sure where she went. I hope she's alright, maybe I should have gone after her."

Just as I tried to muster up enough bravery to look her in the eye I felt a soft hand settle on top of mine. I looked at it and my breath caught in my throat. Hermione had reached out for me, she was practically holding my hand, she thought I was a great thoughtless prat and yet she was being nice to me and showing concern. My first thought was that she was just putting on a show of friendliness for Harry. Then I worried that she could tell I was having...problems and was doing her best not to push the madman over the edge. I thought about going back to the Burrow and having another dose of my potion to get rid of the nerves. Then I thought that maybe I'd gone a bit heavy on my dose this morning, making more paranoid than usual. Then I wondered if maybe...

"If you'd gone after her, she probably would have panicked more. She won't have gone far, and she can't leave the hospital, they have sensors for that." Hermione said tenderly.

I looked her in they eyes and could see that she meant it. I must have looked really upset for her to be speaking to me so softly and kindly.

"Yeah I know." I mumbled, squeezing her hand and trying to smile properly at her without giving the impression that I thought her holding my hand meant anything more than sisterly concern.

She seemed to realise what she was doing and looked down at our hands in my lap. Her eyes widened and she pulled her hand back and leant forward in her chair. She rested her head in her hands and her jaw looked as if it was clenched.. I ran my hand through my hair, having blown it with her for good.

I had seen the type of bloke she liked. She wanted a Viktor Krum and I was never going to be that kind of a man. I'd never be impressive like that. I didn't have a presence when I entered a room. I couldn't sweep a girl off her feet with a nod and a grunt.

More importantly of all, I would never ever be the strong silent type.

Viktor Krum wouldn't have Post traumatic stress do-dah-wotsit. Viktor Krum was a man and I was a mouse. Shit, I was less than a mouse, at least mice didn't cower from spiders.

"To be fair, I think Dobby'd be a better Minister for Magic than he would!" Harry was saying with a chuckle after we'd gone over the latest stupidity in the paper for the day.

I remembered the huge embarrassing scene I caused with a House Elf after Hermione had rejected me at talk of Dobby and glanced Hermione's way to see if she was still okay with me. She was looking back and as soon as our eyes met she turned away and her whole body stiffened. Harry noticed immediately, the observant git!

"You still haven't told me what happened this morning," I mumbled as I tried to get the focus back off me.

"I know I haven't." Hermione lifted her chin and looked back at Harry in a business-like fashion, " I thought it would be better to tell the both of you at the same time and in private. If you remember Ron, I told you that this morning after you'd publicly embarrassed me, and yourself for that matter."

"What happened this morning?" Harry asked.

'Nothing," I said under my breath, head bowed to hide the blush of humiliation, "Its not important."

Harry seemed pissed off at being kept in the dark but resigned to the bumpy road of mine and Hermione's friendship and let it go. I looked at the side of Hermione's head and tried to find out just how out of her league I was about to become.

"So are you going to tell us what happened at Gringotts then?" I ventured.

"Yes I will. But before I do I have to give you this Harry." Hermione pulled an envelope out and handed it to Harry as she spoke.

"What is it?" he asked.

"I think it's a letter telling you the time when they would like you to go and collect the things Dumbledore left you. There's only a few things, trinkets really. They were declared in the meeting this morning and as you nominated me as your representative I was given that to give to you."

"Oh right. What…er…what did he leave me."

I bit my lip and waited for Hermione to say Harry had been left everything apart from the several thousand Galleons that had been left to her.

"As I said, just a few things. A few books, his pensieve – I know you've had it for a while, but it's officially yours now. Er…I can't remember what else, I think it tells you in there."

"Okay, I'll have a look at it later." Harry put the letter away, unopened.

Hermione was leaving an agonisingly long pause before telling us how much she'd been given. I wondered if she was waiting for the pauper to get up and leave the room. Malfoy had one sneered at me that he felt it vulgar to discuss money in the presence of 'unfortunates' as he led his lackeys out of the Great hall one evening. Was the fact was wasn't offering to go and fetch the young masters some tea while they discussed their finances guilt-free just showing me up for the ill-bred commoner I was?

"He left most of his stuff to Hogwarts, to be used in lessons and such, his books are to be added to the library apart from the few he gave Harry and a few other people. He lived at Hogwarts so there was no estate as such to leave to anyone, that was everything."

"What about his-" I blurted, the impetuous side of me suddenly coming to life and stomping all over my self-pity in readiness to defend myself against the look of pity I'd get when Hermione became worth more than my whole family combined.

"What about his what?" Hermione huffed at me and looked at me as if I was preparing to start gold-digging.

"What about his gold?" I muttered as I shuffled in my seat and looked at the floor to keep my temper in check.

I shouldn't snap at her just because she doesn't want me. She'd offered to have me before the money and I messed it up. She would have my number now, she'd think Dumbledore's inheritance was the only attraction. Merlin if I was only competent enough to express to her what the bloody attraction was.

"I'm not sure to be honest. I was still reeling slightly from what I'd been told…and given."

"What was it Hermione?" Harry asked kindly.

"He…he left me- She stammered, glancing at me, her hands, Harry, her hands,and then the approaching Mediwitch.

"Sorry to interrupt Mister Potter, but it's time for your daily medication."

We all heaved a frustrated sight at out interruption and Hermione avoided my eyes while I watched her hands fussing with her robes for several minutes as Harry and the Mediwitch went about their daily dance, the potion tango!

"Sorry about that," Harry said as he winked at me.

"You all right there mate? You're eye's making me think you've taken a fancy to me." I joked, trying to get Hermione to lift her head, maybe look at me, maybe smile.

"Ha bloody ha! It's a side-effect of the first potion, whichever one it is. Taking the rest with it doesn't help. Carry on Hermione."

"Well…as I was trying to say, Dumbledore left me one thing. It was a huge surprise he'd left me anything at all, but to leave me something like that…'"

"Hermione, are you doing this on purpose?" Harry huffed.

Thank Merlin for Harry and his impatience.

My fragile ego would have died a thousand deaths before Hermione got around to putting it out of its misery once and for all.

"No, sorry. Well, Dumbledore left me…the one and only remaining Time Turner."

Well bugger me with a broom handle...I was NOT expecting that.


	22. Chapter 22 Hermione

**Chapter Twenty Two**

**by The Steppy One**

It's not so much that I don't like failure, it's the fact that I seem to implode when I do. It's like the different stages of grieving with me, firstly there's denial: 'no I couldn't possibly have failed', the optimistic phase: 'no, really it's fine, there's an answer in one of these books somewhere', the sobbing uncontrollably phase: well, that one speaks for itself, and there's where I am now, the not well documented 'I have absolutely no idea what to do now' phase.

Previously this phase had only ever lasted for twenty minutes before something had come to mind, well we're on twenty-seven minutes and I still have no idea what to do.

Now I'm panicking.

How hard is it to keep someone safe?

Very hard, when that person is as suspicious of people as Ron is.

'SOD IT ALL TO HELL!'

A loud smashing noise echoed around the room. I looked around and saw the remnants of mum's priceless family heirloom – some sort of vase that was only on display because she thought she should.

Temper, Hermione!

I waved my wand and all the pieces joined together and then I collapsed in a heap on the sofa. I expected tears to fall but they didn't. I had just thought of something.

There was a room.

There was a warded room where Order members could go to keep themselves safe for a short time whilst they recovered or…whatever.

I could take him there and keep him safe until the day ended.

It could work. It _would_ work.

I stood up from the sofa as quickly as I had collapsed down onto it. I spun round and glared at the clock on the wall.

How long had we been talking in the hospital before Ron had stormed out? Was it twenty minutes? Half an hour? Or was it longer?

I felt my heart pounding as I realised Ron would soon be leaving the hospital. I could do it then. I could take him to the warded room and save his life.

Well, I could if I acted now.

* * *

A quick look around me told me no one had noticed my impromptu arrival in Knocturn Alley, probably because no one was in there at the time and luckily there weren't any Auror patrols passing the entrance either. In hindsight this might not have been the best decision of the day, but unfortunately it was necessary.

I had thought about simply walking up to Ron and asking him to come to the hideout with me, but after I thought of everything that could happen if I let him see me I knew, it was impossible. Even if I managed to persuade him to go to the hideout, which I highly doubt he would – both of us having promised each other and Harry we would never visit them again unless there was another war to fight – then I wouldn't be able to get through the afternoon pretending everything was all fine and dandy. I'd have broken down at some time or other and made things a hell of a lot worse.

What would Ron do if I told him everything? He'd think I was a Death Eater first, trying to get close to him and those he cared for. If I did manage to persuade him that it was me and told him everything that had happened, he wouldn't stand in a warded room safe and well while his friends and family were in danger from the remaining, extremely pissed off Death Eaters. He'd hate me for even suggesting it.

He'd hate me.

If he doesn't already that is. No wonder his mood was up and down all day, what with me and, well, _me_ telling him one thing and then another. It's enough to confuse someone stupid.

He was anything but stupid.

No, if anyone was stupid here, it was me.

I physically shook the thoughts from my mind, I didn't need the distraction.

I walked down the dark alley, glancing over my shoulder on occasion and made my way down to a door, which was barely visible to the naked eye. It was supposed to be like that though, if you didn't know it was there, then the people inside didn't need your interference.

I pulled my hood further forward so most of my face was hidden and banged heavily on the door.

This is something I thought I would never see myself doing.

I was going to hire people, thugs, to abduct Ron.

The bangs echoed through the alley and I flinched, hoping they wouldn't alert anyone to my being there. I held my breath as I listened to the heavy footsteps walking towards the door.

The small, metal covered slit opened and a pair of eyes looked me over. I was careful not to look at them directly, lifting my head would mean they got a better look at me; that was the last thing I needed.

'Whadd'ya wan'?' the man barked at me.

'I need to hire your service,' I said in a voice that sounded far more confident than I felt.

The man smirked. 'Posh bird eh? What's wrong luv? You're old man batter ya?'

I sighed, not in the mood, nor with the time to put up with his attitude.

'Look, I need something from you and you won't say no to a bagful of galleons will you?'

'Alrigh', whadd'ya need?'

'I need someone…brought to me.'

I still found it hard to get my head round the fact that I was paying someone to have Ron abducted.

'Kidnapped ya mean?'

I could tell he was smirking.

'Yes, that's exactly it. Look, I don't have much time, he'll be along soon and it needs to be done now. Will you do it.'

He kept me waiting thirty seconds. I sighed loudly.

'Aye, we'll do i'. Eighty galleons, se'nty-five for you 'coz 'e 'its ya. There's rules though, if anyone turns up, we leave, simple as tha'.'

I was expecting it to cost me that much, not that it's an issue, I'll pay anything to keep him safe.

'Fine, but I've got rules too. You _do not_ hurt him. You do what you have to do to bring him to me but under no circumstances hurt him. Understand?

* * *

He must be freezing. And scared. Although he'd never admit it. He's just heard Wormtail in that pub. Nothing else but dark wizards and traitors gives him that expression. The disgust and anger in his eyes was scary.

My eyes widen as I watch two people walk up to him. I know who they are, and I hate the fact that it's me that's put them there. I hate the fact that I have to do this at all.

'There's a reason Hermione. It's better than the alternative,' I mumbled, trying to reassure myself. 'It'll all be over soon.'

'Don't fucking move lanky!'

And so it begins.

I watched wide eyed as Ron tried to struggle but was frogmarched into the alleyway beside the pub. I instantly disapparated and apparated to the end of the same alley.

_'Compescor_!' One of them grunted.

They shoved him to the floor face down, anger bubbled through me. I walked forward, face covered with my hood.

'I said you weren't to hurt him!' I hissed at them.

'You wanted him, we brought him, where's our money?'

'I didn't want him roughed up!' I shrieked a little too loudly.

'Look you pointed him out, said to bring him and not take no for an answer, now pay!'

I started to fumble in my robes for the gold I had hastilly collected from my Gringotts vault. I was just about to pull the substantial bag out when I noticed the other one haul Ron to his feet and shove him into the wall. My anger came back with a vengance.

'What's he worth to you?'

'What?' I snapped in reply.

'You wanted him. You don't want to see him roughed-up. I figure you want him enough to pay double.'

No, this wasn't happening, it was taking to long. We didn't have time for this.

'We agreed a price!' I said with as much restraint as I could muster.

'And we just upped it!'

I risked a look up and saw the taller of the two men pin Ron to the wall with his wand. It sparked in his hand and Ron cried out in pain.

'You get nothing if you hurt him!' I hissed.

'Ron!'

Oh Merlin, no! It was too soon, surely!

'Let him go!' I heard myself scream.

I yanked the bag of money out of my pocket and held it out to the shorter of my 'employees'.

'Take the money, give him to me!'

He went to grab the bag but his unruly swipe sent the bag to the floor, scattering the coins everywhere.

He summoned the coins to him.

'_Stupify!_' my other self screamed.

I desperately wanted to look properly but I couldn't risk it.

I wasn't given any other chance to asses the situation I had got myself in to because Ron was pulled from the wall and shoved into me. I managed to catch him and hold his weight. He steadied.

There was nothing more in the world I wanted at that second than to look up into his blue eyes and get lost in them. But I couldn't. Things would get a whole lot worse if I did.

'You set us up, you bitch! _Oppugno!_'

Ron went limp in my arms and became heavier because of it. The two thugs disapparated with their gold leaving me to deal with an irate Hermione Granger. Well, at least I should be able to deal with her. I had the advantage; I knew exactly what she was going to do.

'Let…him…go!'

I ignored my demand and set about reviving Ron.

'_Enervate_, come on Ron, wake up for me. Open your eyes. _Enervate!_'

'LET HIM GO!'

I couldn't help it, I looked at myself. I suddenly remember the cold stare I had received from the crazy lady in the alley. I didn't think I could give stares like that.

'_Impedimenta!_'

Careless Hermione, you could have hit the one you want.

I easily blocked the spell and it rebounded, hitting the wall next to her.

'What do you want with him?' she asked in what appeared to be a calm tone. I knew I had felt anything but calm though.

'I want to save him.'

He wasn't waking up, why wasn't he waking up? Oppugno, wasn't a particularly strong spell, why wasn't Enervate working?

'What?' she hissed at me.

Merlin couldn't I ever just…just…

Just what Hermione? Leave him with someone who has shown aggression towards him? Not care enough about him to just walk away?

I slammed my foot on the ground. There was nothing more to do than try and stop myself.

I watched as her eyes dropped to my foot and I took my opportunity to catch her off guard.

I sent the Confundus charm at her and it hit her. She slumped to her knees and I knew that was all it had taken. In a few seconds I would start to think that _I_ was helping him. I didn't know it at the time that I had been right.

I couldn't hold Ron up anymore; my arms were about to give way. I had no choice but to lay him on the ground. I knelt down next to him and felt myself start to panic again. I hadn't managed the quick getaway I had hoped for and now I had another problem: Ron was unconscious and, apparently, there was nothing I could do to wake him.

'Ron, please wake up!'

I was back in Diagon Alley, kneeling over his fallen form, brushing the hair out of his eyes.

I breathed in sharply and tried to suppress a sob.

'I'm sorry Ron,' I squeaked. 'I'm so sorry.'

I stood and disapparated out of the alley.

This was just too hard.


	23. Chapter 23 Ron

**Chapter Twenty Three**

**by Solstice Muse**

Merlin I felt dizzy.

"…not just a spell. Check his things again. He must be taking something. We should have managed to revive him by now." A female voice was muttering distractedly as I winced at the bight light that was shining in my face.

"Turn that light off," I grumbled, rubbing my sore head and attempting to sit up.

A shooting pain in my back forced me to lie still again.

"Mr Weasley?" the voice spoke again, a more urgent tone than before, "Tricia, go and fetch a strengthening solution…now girl!"

I took a deep breath and let it out while the light that shone in my face dimmed and a hand turned my face to one side, gently but firmly.

"Thanks," I sighed, able to blink my eyes into focus properly now.

"Mr Weasley, do you know where you are?" The woman said as she looked at me with a gaze that could turn a man to jelly.

"Well I'm guessing the hospital," I replied roughly.

"Yes," the witch said as she sent a spell into me that soothed my back enormously.

"Oh that's better!" I whimpered gratefully.

"Yes, we didn't want to heal it totally until we knew why you couldn't be woken." The Healer said before pressing her lips together in a very McGonagall way, "Now young man, what have you been taking?"

I swallowed and looked around me for any sign of my family or Harry and Hermione.

"Well my father kno… Hold on, _Hermione_! I was with somebody; she was coming when she saw me getting into some bother with these weird people. Where is she?"

"You answer my question and I'll answer yours," the forceful woman said as she shoved me down with one hand on my chest.

"Where is she?" I demanded again.

"What have you taken?"

I felt sick with worry, guilt and shame as I looked away from the battleaxe and mumbled my response.

"I'm on something for Acerbus suffers okay?"

The woman's stern expression softened and she lifted my chin to make me look at her.

"You have Acerbus?"

"No," I shook my head, "Healer Astle put me on it for a while. He said I had a Muggle thing. You'll have to talk to him about it."

The woman nodded.

"I know Astle. That's fine, as long as you should be taking it, I just needed to be sure that's all."

The woman actually smiled at me.

"You didn't tell anybody did you?" I asked, feeling my chest tighten and the weight on my shoulders growing heavier.

"I wouldn't tell anyone anything without your consent Mr Weasley," the woman said primly, "although, if the problem is similar to the despair and darkness disorder I really do think you need to share the burden with somebody close to you."

I was hit by a second wave of panic for Hermione as soon as the witch had said that.

"Where's…Ron?" Hermione's pained voice called out frantically.

I sat bolt upright and tore the sheets of me.

"Now wait a moment while we try to ensure you are both well enough to see each other!" my Healer said as she tried to push me back down onto the bed while another haughty voice seemed to be remonstrating with Hermione.

"Miss Granger please lie down, you're not in any fit state to be up and about."

Not in a fit state? What the hell is that supposed to mean? Why is she not fit to get up? What the hell did those bastards of Wormtail do to her?

"I don't care! I need to know if Ron's alright!" Hermione was declaring heatedly.

It actually warmed my heart a little to hear her concern for me. She still wanted to see me even though I'd been an arse. She still cared despite me leading her into an ambush.

"Hermione?" I called out pathetically.

"Ron?"

"Miss Granger, _please!_" The tyrannical voice said once again.

I was fighting with my Healer to go to her, to rip through those bloody curtains and see that she was alright.

"Hermione, are you okay?" I called to her.

"Mr Weasley, please try and stay calm. This is the potion talking. You must know by now that it can make you very irrational." The witch said as I wrestled with her until we both staggered through the curtain and into a small space between all the curtained areas.

"Get off me! I'm fine. I need to check on Hermione!"

I ripped the curtain back and saw Hermione sitting up in a hospital bed. She was pale and looked very frightened. Her wrist was bandaged up and there were two Mediwitches around her trying to administer some healing spells and keep her from getting out of bed.

Now I knew what Harry felt like all the time, seeing his loved ones hurt and scared and feeling it was his fault. Only this _was_ my fault.

"Are you okay? I tried to warn you, I tried to get you to not get involved but…I couldn't."

_Merlin I was pathetic!_

"It wouldn't have mattered if you did; I wasn't going to leave you there." She said with sad eyes, "You know I couldn't have left you."

"Still, I didn't want you to get hurt." I mumbled as my throat constricted, making my words hard to get out.

"I didn't-" she began before wincing and griping my arm tightly.

"What? What is it? Where does it hurt? Haven't you given her anything for the pain yet?"

I tried to distract myself, Hermione and my Healer from the fact that I was clearly on the brink of a full-blown anxiety attack by bossing around Hermione's attendants. I snapped at them, they snapped back at me, my Healer tried to get me to leave and calm down. She asked me with impressive subtlety if I wanted her to fetch Healer Astle for me.

There was a five-way bickering session going on which ended up with Hermione having to take some nasty potion and me being allowed to sit with her as long as I behaved myself. My Healer squeezed my arm and gave me a hard look in my eye. She made a point of giving me instruction in the event of feeling '_unwell'_.

I was at the point at that moment when I thought I'd never been '_well_' in my life.

I sat down on the chair that was next to Hermione's bed and attempted to divert attention away from anxiety and attacks and everything else I wanted to avoid by jauntily popping my legs up on the side of her bed. She giggled at me before her eyes widened and she seemed to be staring between my legs.

"Er…Ron…"

"Yeah?" I said, shifting uncomfortably under her scrutiny.

"Er…your gown is er…well…airy!"

I pulled my legs back down immediately and cursed whoever decided that the first thing to be done when a person gets anything as small as a nosebleed was to strip them naked and drape a doily over them for modesty's sake.

"Ron," Hermione frowned after sending the Mediwitch away to find Harry, "why were you at the entrance to Knockturn Alley?'

"I wasn't doing anything wrong!" I blurted, always on the defensive whether I was on potion for being a gibbering lunatic or not, "I'd just been walking and I ended up there! I was actually going to go inside the pub and ask if I could use their fireplace so I could floo _home_. What do you think I was doing there?"

"I'm sorry, I wasn't accusing you of anything, I was just wondering why you were in the place where you were attacked that's all."

Well I'd just had a stupid argument about money and time turners with my best friends before nearly walking into a pub full of Death Eaters, one of whom was my old pet rat, and overhearing that we're all in for one last fight before we can all retire from dealing with this shit at the ripe old age of eighteen!

I didn't say that though. I let her carry on for a bit longer.

"Whether it was a coincidence or whether someone was following you. You're the one who taught me to look at every possible angle of every situation!"

Me…teach her something? Was she taking the piss?

I slumped in my chair and tried to get my head around this colossally shit day that wasn't even close to over yet.


	24. Chapter 24 Hermione

**Chapter Twenty Four**

**by The Steppy One**

It was a long time since I'd looked at this wall. There was a reason for that; I hadn't been injured and helpless enough to need to come here instead of somewhere more comforting.

It was completely empty, a cold, stone room, no windows and the door was only visible when it opened. It only opened when a spell was cast on it.

I was sat cross-legged on the floor staring at three dark red, almost black marks on the wall. They took me back to a time a year earlier, when we thought we were about to lose Harry. It wasn't the first time and it certainly wouldn't be the last.

* * *

_'Ron! We need to get out of here, NOW! There's no way we can fight them all and Harry needs healing!'_

'Just a few more minutes!'

'NO Ron! Harry doesn't have a few more minutes. We need to go now!'

'Okay, we'll go!'

We apparated to the room and immediately I started on Harry's wounds, hoping and praying what I was doing was enough to help him.

After ten minutes of frantically working on Harry his breathing calmed down and I'd managed to stop most of the bleeding. When I was certain everything was as normal with him as it could be, I revived him, it was the only way to be sure he was going to be all right.

His eyes opened after Ron had gently persuaded to do so. I'd slumped back against the wall, exhausted both physically and mentally and it was all I could do to just watch them and not close my eyes and fall asleep.

Once Harry had regained a grasp on the conscious world he sat up and looked over at me. His eyes widened.

'Hermione! You're covered in blood!'

I quickly looked over myself and saw Harry's blood spattered on my arms and chest. I had a feeling it was all over my face too.

'Oh, yeah, sorry. Don't worry, it's only yours!'

I managed a half smile but the muscles in my face ached when I did. My smile soon slipped.

'Bloody hell! Is that mine too?'

He pointed at the wall and at the blood spatters on it.

I nodded my head tiredly.

'Shit! Thanks guys, I have a feeling I should be dead!'

'You…you should have been dead eighteen years ago Harry!' I said quietly. 'Something insignificant like Sectumsempra isn't going to finish you off! Not if I've got anything to do with…with it. But if you could just not put the main artery in your arm in front of it next time, I'd be very appreciative!'

He smiled at me.

'Sorry, I'll try harder next time.'

I smiled and closed my eyes. I didn't care how uncomfortable the floor was; to me it was the best bed in the world. I closed my eyes and let my head rest against the wall.

I heard shuffling and opened my eyes to see Harry sit himself up and turn to look at the blood spattered wall.

He raised his arm with a wince and stretched his finger towards one of the drops of blood on the wall. He traced a shape on the wall and let his arm fall to his side.

'It's where it all started. It's what started the whole thing.'

A look of comprehension dawned on Ron's face and his head dropped to the floor.

Despite my tiredness my curiosity got the better of me. I shuffled next to Harry and looked at the wall.

He had made the shape of his lightening bolt scar on the wall out of his blood.

'Everything that's happened…' he said quietly, 'has happened because of that.'

Ron shuffled forward and spotted a small pool of Harry's blood on the floor, he dipped his index finger in it and next to the shape Harry had just drawn he dabbed a few dots, then wiped his finger on his blood-spattered jeans.

Harry looked both disgusted at the fact Ron had just willingly put his finger in hiss blood and confused as to what he'd just done.

'Wherever that scar goes, these freckles will be stood right next to it.'

Ron's mouth pulled into a half smile and Harry looked like he was about to cry.

Taking my lead from Ron I knelt up and dipped my finger in the small red pool and sat back down. On the right hand side of the zig-zag line I drew a spiral that was the same length as the line next to it.

'As will this hair!'

Harry stared at the markings on the wall and a tear escaped his eye. I squeezed his shoulder and he took my hand in his and took Ron's in his other.

'Thanks, you know…I have the courage to go on when you two are next to me.'

'Well, we're going nowhere mate, we'll be around for a long time to come yet.'

* * *

I stared at the markings and I somehow managed to smile at the memory. I could almost see Harry's strength returning to him as sat staring at them. His confidence was returning and our confidence in him was too. Not that we doubted his physical strength to get the job done, but his mental strength was something different. Sometimes he'd be quiet for hours, Ron would too and I hated it when they did it. It was bad enough when one did it, but when both of them went silent at the same time it was unbearable.

I'm just one of those people who has to talk about things, not overly so; when something has been concluded it shouldn't be picked over and over, people just get frustrated. But still I needed to talk. I think the two of them realised it helped me and they instigated conversations to help me through even though it probably made them feel even more daunted and scared.

The markings had faded slightly and unfortunately they had been spattered with a few more drops of blood, I don't know who's, I don't really want to know.

Ron's words rattled around my head.

'We'll be around for a long time to come yet.'

I took a deep breath.

'Yes you will Ron, if it's the last thing I do, I'll make sure of the fact.'

There was just something I had to do first.

* * *

I hadn't consciously thought to apparate to the part of muggle London nearest to the hospital, but apparently my subconscious mind had more control over my apparation than I thought healthy. I was lucky I hadn't splinched myself.

Initially I'd thought of getting supplies for when I actually got my plan into action. When I got Ron to the safe house we'd need certain things. On a basic level we'd need food and water and – I hated to think about it being a possibility – if anything happened and I ended up duelling Ron for whatever reason, I needed medical supplies, just in case.

I walked through the streets, head down to everyone around me but with my hood down. I was already getting a few strange glances because of my cloak but at the minute I really didn't care, I wasn't going to be here long.

I carried on walking for another minute before I started to get a strange feeling. Why was I having a déjà vu?

'Been on holiday 'ave ya?'

I stopped dead. I looked around and realised where I was; I was at the entrance to the alleyway I'd been attacked in. But then that meant…

'Oh Merlin!'

I'd totally forgotten about my altercation with the witch in the alleyway.

The whole idea was ridiculous. The fact that I was having a déjà vu of something that hadn't even happened yet was mind boggling.

'You have more important things to do Hermione! What can pinning yourself against a wall achieve?'

Despite my protests I found myself taking a few steps forward.

What would happen if I didn't do it? I needed to make her understand how she- I was hurting him. I needed someone to make me realise how I felt about him, how much I needed to respect him for the person he is, for just being Ronald Weasley.

Ridiculous as the idea was and as much as my brain was trying to make me see that fact I walked on.

I walked past the man I had just given a fiver to and looked over my shoulder as he walked over to a greasy spoon with a smile on his face.

I waited in the shadows of the alley and pulled my hood up. I waited for her to come back into the alleyway. I remembered the pain jarring my head as I stepped onto the street and knew I'd be back in a few seconds. Sure enough I heard footsteps and saw my form appear.

I started walking; I remembered it was footsteps that had stopped me apparating instantly. I watched as my other self stepped backwards, waiting for me to walk past her.

Shocking me to the core my pent up emotion bubbled to the surface. All the anger at the Death Eaters who were planning an attack on Hogsmeade, all my frustration at my lack of ability to get things right with Ron, and all the sadness I remembered as I watched Arthur cradling his youngest son in his arms, it was all there and overwhelming me.

I marched forwards and brought my arm up to her neck. I pushed her backwards and heard her head hit the wall.

'What…what…do you…want from…m…me?' she stammered through her restricted throat.

I opened my mouth but no sound came out. Tears welled in my eyes but I forced myself to stay calm.

'He…deserves…better!' I said through gritted teeth.

'What the hell are you talking about?' she snarled at me.

She tried to struggle but I knew I had the upper hand; she was just out of hospital and was still in pain.

'_Treat him with respect!_ He cares for you, more than…more than you deserve.'

My composure was starting to crumble. I just couldn't get the image of Ron hurting and confused out of my mind.

'What do you want with us? First Ron, now me? I suppose I should be thankful Harry's in hospital or else you'd be after him too!'

She'd realised who it was. Now was the time to leave.

I pushed against her as I stepped back.

'You love him,' I whispered but she didn't hear me. 'You should tell him before it's too late.'

I clamped my hand to my mouth so to not choke out the sob that had formed in my throat and apparated away from a very confused and worried Hermione Granger, before she hexed me into oblivion.


	25. Chapter 25 Ron

**Chapter Twenty Five**

**by Solstice Muse**

I told them and told them and told them again and they still keep asking more of the same questions.

How many of them were there? Was I sure Wormtail was with them as he'd been reported dead in the final battle? Was it true that my 'mental state' might have caused me to get confused about what I might have seen and heard?

That really ticked dad off actually.

He'd pulled the Auror, who was trying to get me to drink Veritaserum, away from me and gave them a right telling off.

_"You are aware that my son has been through a lot, not counting being attacked by thugs who hospitalised him only this afternoon, and is currently taking a very strong potion for his nerves...?"_

I cringed at that. My '_nerves_' – it made me sound like a menopausal woman!

_"If he ingests any more potions he'll overdose you fool_!"

There must have been something in the way I raised my eyebrows at this that caused the Auror to back down immediately. I shook my head and turned away with a sigh. When dad slapped his hand on my back I jumped and he smiled one of his worried smiles and asked me if I'd feel better putting the memory into a Pensieve rather than recite it yet again.

That suited me, I agreed immediately and a bottle was found for me to drop the memory into. It was quite a thick silvery blob of memory that dangled from the end of my wand. I wondered what would happen if I emptied everything I had in my head into a barrel. Would I feel any better without it? Would it make a difference?

"Ron?" Dad said as he shook my shoulder, snapping me out of my navel gazing trance.

"Yeah?" I smiled and blinked as I was guided out of the room by my father's forceful hand and steered along the corridor towards the lifts.

"You did a good thing coming straight to us with this. I'm very proud of you."

"Yeah," I said with a half hearted shrug.

Dad grabbed my shoulder and squeezed it tightly, causing me to turn around and look back at him questioningly.

"I know you're distracted these days son but please do be careful out there in the world on your own won't you?" the old man said with a crinkle in his brow, "It may all be over as far as You-Know-Who is concerned but there are still plenty of people who would like to hu... Please be careful Ron. Don't wander anywhere by yourself eh?"

I smiled at the worried old bloke and patted him on the back reassuringly.

"You offering to be my escort?"

"I'd escort my boy anywhere!" Dad said as he proudly lifted his chin with a beaming grin.

"How 'bout the pub?" I suggested.

"Are you allowed to drink with your potion?" he said before cringing at how much he sounded like my mother, "Oh would you listen to me, but Ron I really do worry. Are you sure?"

I nodded.

"One Butterbeer won't hurt and I've not taken anything since this morning's dose. It's probably out of my system but now actually."

"Ah, that explains you being so quiet in there," dad sighed as we stepped into the lift and he leaned over to press the button for street level, "even when you were snapping at us your heart wasn't in it."

I laughed at this, Hermione had once said something similar when I gave up three insults into an argument – a fact the totally unsettled her. I was coming down and feeling weary and worn down from the day's events. Merlin help me I actually needed a nap.

Cart me away now...I'm officially an old geezer.

* * *

_Dad was gently knocking on my bedroom door._

"Tell 'em I'm sick, something contagious, keep them away from me."

"No Ron," he said, stepping inside and closing the door gently behind him, "it's Sunday, it's the family day. Charlie is here, Bill and Fleur, the twins...everybody makes the effort to come for Sunday dinner for your mother. You know how she gets when the table is empty?"

"It won't be empty," I mumbled from beneath the blankets of my bed, "nobody'll miss me if you don't point it out."

I felt the bed sag with my father's weight as he perched himself on the edge and set his hand lightly upon the side of my head, through layers of sheets, blankets and a raggedy old quilt.

"You are already missed and if I tell them you're feeling unwell they will want to come up and say hello."

I flung the covers back in a huff and glared at dad in a way he seemed to find shocking.

"What good does saying 'hello' do to a sick person?"

He just stared at me. He didn't say a word. I snorted and fidgeted about for something else to complain about. He was still looking at me.

"What?" I snapped sharply.

Dad got up from the bed and began picking out some underwear and clothes for me to wear.

"I'm not coming down to be talked at and told what to do and made to feel like a dick by the twins and invisible by Bill and Fleur and mph!"

A jumper hit me in the face. I tore it away and flung it to the ground before slamming myself back onto my side and pulling the covers over my head.

The covers were wrenched back again and dad caught them in mid air, pausing to put his wand away again, before throwing them out the open window.

"Are you mad?" I gaped at the senile old coot.

He took a step towards me and began to wrestle me out of my Cannons t-shirt that was almost growing moss it was so moist.

"Get off me! Leave me alone and tell your bloody wife to fuck up her other kids today and give this one a bloody break!"

As soon as I said it we both froze.

We froze and stared at each other.

He was looking right into me in a way that made my insides squirm.

"Dad please," I begged him, "today's a bad day, please dad?"

He looked at me intensely before turning to glance in the direction of the bathroom and then back at me.

"I've taken it alright," I said, my shoulders falling, "it's not working. Well it is but it's not making things better."

He lifted his eyebrows at me.

"I don't want to have to talk to people and if I stay out of the way then maybe people will forget I'm here and I can just get through all this mess without bothering anybody."

He sat down on the chair beside my cluttered desk and blinked.

"They're going to want me to be...ME and I can't right now dad. I'm all messed up by the potion and the other stuff and keeping it all a secret and don't say I can fix that by telling everybody because then they'll never leave me alone and mum'll drive me nuts and Harry'll tear his hair out with the guilt and..."

I looked at him, waiting for the inevitable interruption.

It didn't come.

"I just want to disappear for one day dad," I said, my eyes beginning to burn and my voice breaking, "just for today."

He shuffled the chair forward and leaned closer to grab my chin between his thumb and forefinger. He stared into my reddening eyes and pulled me in closer so he could kiss my forehead.

"Are you finished?" he asked kindly.

I exhaled deeply and rubbed at my stinging eyes with the heel of my palms before nodding.

"Yeah, sorry."

"I keep telling you, you need to work that through your system rather than just curling up. The potion will never do its job if you don't go about your life as normal."

"I know."

"It'll think this is normal and it isn't is it? This isn't you, not my wonderful remarkable Ron."

I reached out my hand and took the jumper from him.

"Tell them I overslept and I'll be down in a minute okay?"

He grinned at me and pulled me into a tight hug.

"You take your time son."

I pulled a beer mat apart absent-mindedly while I waited for dad to come back with our drinks. I kept looking up, feeling as if somebody was looking at me, but paranoia is one of the side effects of the bloody potion so I was used to that by now.

I huffed and turned my attention back to busying my fingers.

I sometimes wish there was a switch I could flick to just turn off my thoughts for a while, take a break from thinking. Now I know that most people who know me will claim I do very little thinking at all, certainly not before I speak, but I sometimes feel as if I've been overloaded with conflicting thoughts.

I'm like a cauldron that's filled to the brim. If you look at it it's just like every other cauldron but just one thing, one tiny drop more added to the contents and it all comes spilling over and creates a big mess of crap that nobody wants to deal with.

I just kept adding and adding to that bloody cauldron and now, every time I siphon a little off so it's not about to spill I have to top it back up with that bloody potion.

There it was again.

I shifted in my seat and looked around. Maybe it was dad popping back to keep an eye on me. I was probably just imagining it again.

After all...who'd be watching me?


	26. Chapter 26 Hermione

**Chapter Twenty Six**

**by The Steppy One**

There was one thing that I hated above anything, above Death Eaters, above malicious wizards and witches who thought it fun to torture and kill good people, it was seeing my Ron upset because of something I'd done.

All I had to do was to remain unseen by him so to not confuse him and make this possibly the most confusing and upsetting day in his life.

Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration but still, this day had been anything but easy on him without me adding my "other self" to the equation and making things worse.

I was starting to hate myself, but as much as I wanted to do something about that, I had more pressing things on my mind. As much as I'd messed things up so far, I still had a promise to fulfil. I'd promised Ron I would save him, even if it was the last thing I did. And there was nothing that was going to stop me from keeping that promise.

I loved him too much to fail him.

That was why I was stood outside the pub he and Arthur were going to walk in, in about five minutes.

Once I had thought over the events of yesterday…today…whenever the hell it was I knew I had one last chance to take him and keep him in the safe house. There was one last place I knew he would be and I intended to take him from there and keep him safe.

I had already changed the room, I had whitened the walls so it was as non descript as possible, it wasn't a permanent charm though, I couldn't bear the thought of permanently eradicating our marks from existence. It was those that reminded me why I was doing this. As much as I was doing this for extremely selfish reasons, I was doing it for Harry as well, if I let things play out the way they had then Harry would…well, I'm not sure what Harry would do. Something stupid no doubt. Then again I can hardly talk, the first thing I did was go back in time to try and change the future, hardly rational thinking is it?

I had taken Harry's invisibility cloak from Grimmauld Place and was covered in it, hiding from anyone and everyone, waiting for my time.

I gasped as I saw them round a corner and walk up towards me. They both looked tired. Arthur was looking around him as they walked, obviously on the look out for any other thugs who were trying to harm his son. I was suddenly glad I had thought to use the invisibility cloak, any glimpse of a hooded figure and Arthur would have hexed them- _me_ before they had the chance to do anything. Anything to protect his son.

In contrast to Arthur, Ron was staring resolutely at the ground, his shoulders hunched and his hands in his pockets. His brow was furrowed, obviously concentrating or thinking hard about something.

Somehow I managed to tear my eyes away from him and step back from the door. I held my breath as they came within inches of me. Ron looked right through me as he entered the pub and I gasped when I saw there were tears in his eyes. Luckily the sound went unnoticed by both of them and I managed to slip inside the pub after them before the door slammed shut.

They made their way through the pub to one of the private rooms at the back, but I was stopped following them when a group of people walked between them and me as they made their way to the bar. I swore louder than I should have, but the general din of the place drowned it out. After what seemed like minutes but could only have been a few seconds, they moved out of my way and I hurried forwards, only to see the door they had walked through shut behind them.

_  
'Shit!'_ I said as I stamped my foot in frustration, not caring how much noise I made.

I thought frantically, trying to figure out how to get into the room. Could I apparate? No, they'd hear it and send spells out at me before I had chance to draw my wand, even if I was invisible. That left me out of options.

Before I could think anything else the door opened and Arthur walked out looking over his shoulder at Ron.

'Butterbeer?' Arthur asked Ron.

'Yeah, better had, who knows what Firewhiskey would do to the potion running through my veins!'

Potion? What potion? Did the hospital give him something after this afternoon? Merlin Ron, what did they- _I_ do to you?

Arthur smiled at him and walked towards the bar. Thanking my lucky stars I slipped into the room and silently walked to the opposite side to Ron. I huddled in the dark corner, not that it was entirely necessary, being invisible and all that, and sat down on a battered stool.

As soon as I had sat down I stood back up again, I could do it now. I could take him _now_.

I took two steps forward but then I looked at him. A tear slowly made it's way down his cheek and my breath caught in my throat. I instantly felt my eyes burn. I hated seeing him upset, I just wanted to walk forward and hold him, tell him everything would be all right.

I stopped when his head snapped to where I was stood. Had he heard me? I daren't move, I daren't breathe.

His eyes moved around and then he relaxed and sat back in his chair. I mentally sighed, not daring to breathe louder than was absolutely necessary.

The door banged open and he wiped away his tear as Arthur came back in the room, carrying two bottles of Butterbeer. I hastily retreated to my corner and once again took a seat on the stool.

I watched as Arthur handed Ron his drink and sat next to him.

'Ron, I'm only going to ask you this once more. Are you absolutely sure you told us everything that you saw?'

Ron sighed.

'Well y'know what? After the sixtieth time I think I might have omitted something huge like the name and address and a signed photograph of the three nutters in the darkened alley. Thank goodness you probed further dad, I would have never have thought to mention it otherwise!"

As much as I was shocked at the tone Ron had taken with his dad, I did see his point and a smile played at the corner of my mouth. Ron was not one to leave out detail, especially when it was as important as traitors' movements and plans for one final attempt at destruction.

Arthur smiled sadly.

'Keep going son.'

I loved Arthur, he understood Ron so well.

'Sorry,' he mumbled

'No, I said keep going.'

Ron seemed to take strength from his dad, knowing he didn't mind in the slightest that Ron needed to rant and rave.

'It's just that I'm the only person to come out of this war less of a man then when I went in. I have officially become pathetic. I can't even have a proper conversation with my friends anymore.'

My breathing hitched again and I knew if I didn't physically stop myself from sobbing I would be in serious trouble. I pressed my hands to my mouth, willing myself to calm down. I didn't know his self esteem was this low? Why was it like this?

After a second I realised I probably knew the answer to that.

'I feel like whole parts of my life didn't really happen at all. I harboured a bloody traitor in my bed for years and he's still alive now and plotting to hurt more people. I'm getting bought and sold on the soddin' street by who bloody knows? And Hermione, she looked at me like...like I was..."

Tears fell from my eyes and I cried silently. Had I really made him feel like this? For someone who's supposed to be intelligent I can be incredibly stupid. I didn't even know he felt like this.

And I didn't know how to change things.

I watched as Arthur comforted his son.

'I don't wanna be the pathetic loser dad, I don't want to be the tag-along one. In years to come what'll the history books say about me? Ron Weasley...the other one.'

I closed my eyes, willing myself not to lose focus on what I had to do, but how could I when I was listening to the one I love talk about himself like that? He had never been the tag-along. Harry couldn't have done half the things he'd had to without Ron there, and Ron _knew_ that.

'You know you are talking nonsense don't you my boy?' He sighed.

I thanked Merlin for Arthur.

'As ever.'

'Why don't you tell them?'

Please Ron, answer him, please tell me why you can't talk to Harry and me about this.

'They already know I'm a git.'

'Harry's still recovering and Hermione's such a sensitive soul.'

Coward more like.

'They won't judge you. I'm sure they have this post-traumatic stress thingamabob as well you know?'

Wait, _Post Traumatic Stress?_ Since when has Ron had Post Traumatic Stress? And I'll ask the question again, why didn't he tell us? Is he being treated for it? How do wizards treat it? _Can_ wizards treat it?

Not the time Hermione. I closed my eyes and focused my mind on Ron again.

'Dad, don't.'

'The three of you suffered a lot in the final battle and now you get a blast from the past like Pettigrew showing up and seconds later a wand in your ribs. You need to talk to your friends Ron.'

'Not Harry, he feels guilty if someone he loves gets a splinter.'

Despite myself I smiled, he had a point.

'Hermione doesn't want me. I tried...I asked, well I didn't ask but I...I tried. She doesn't want me.'

It was all I could do to stay seated and keep my mouth shut. All I wanted to do was walk over to him and tell him how much I wanted him, how much I needed him in my life. I couldn't imagine it without him.

'Are you sure about that son?'

I watched him as he thought about the question Arthur had just asked him. I thought about how I had looked at him in the café, after the first time we kissed, well, it wasn't the first time he'd kissed me…

Merlin, what have I done?

'Drink up my lad and I'll go and make you a portkey home alright?'

I took a sharp breath, this was my only chance. I had to get this right.

'Dad, I can Apparate, it's fine.'

'You can but you won't.' I silently thanked Arthur for being so security conscious, I didn't think about the irony of the situation. 'You're going home via a portkey of my own making into my own house. Somebody went for you just walking down the street and they're still out there Ron. I'm not taking any chances.'

Arthur left the room and I heard the door lock behind me.

I looked over at Ron and stood up from my stool. I stood still and looked at his eyes. They were red and I saw them filling with tears again. I felt the same happening to me and this time I couldn't contain my sobs.

'Hello?'

I gasped and then moved out of the way as he walked to where I had been standing. I moved behind him and watched as he drew his wand and tensed, ready for a fight.

'What the hell do you want?' he spat.

I stepped up to him so I was nearly touching him.

'Somebody's got to look after you,' I said softly.

I wrapped my arm around him and disapparated us out of the pub and into my safe house.

Ron's safe house. The place where I'd keep him safe until this whole nightmare was over.

The second we appeared inside the room – I had lifted the anti-apparition wards before I'd left – I did something I hated doing. I put Ron to sleep.

'_Obdormio_,' I whispered, and he fell into my arms.

I carefully put him down on the floor, brushing his fringe out of his eyes and kissing him softly on the lips before tearing myself away from him. Before I stood up I took his wand out of his cloak and pocketed it.

I waved my own wand around the room, casting the strongest anti-apparition wards I knew on the room.

I turned to leave when the corner of the room I knew too well caught my attention. Yes it was now white but I still couldn't help but stare at it.

I walked over to the wall and drew a square with my wand around where I knew the marking to be. The white faded and the blood-spattered wall was revealed.

I looked at the lightening bolt in the middle and smiled. I looked at the curl to the right of it and my smile slipped. Finally I looked at the series of dots on the left and I sobbed.

I needed those freckles, every single one of them.


	27. Chapter 27 Ron

**Chapter Twenty Seven**

**by Solstice Muse**

It was so bright.

I must have been looking into the sun or something. I was lying in the brilliant sunlight and she was holding me. I could smell her, my Hermione, and feel her gentle touch.

I woke up in the hospital wing at school, more than once, with the sensation of her fingers sliding through my hair. She would whisper things to me that I couldn't quite catch because I was still foggy from sleep. I could feel her, I could smell her, I could hear her. Hermione was with me.

It would all be okay.

"Maybe..." I sighed before snuggling into something soft.

"Shhh," she soothed me and her gentle hand stroked the side of my face, "go back to sleep. Everything's going to be alright Ron. I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to make sure you're safe, I promise."

I breathed deeply and melted into the Hermione-shaped pillow beneath me.

* * *

My back was stiff.

I scrunched up my face and fidgeted. I was laying on something hard.

The floor, I was laying on the floor. Did I fall down?

"Dad?" I called out hoarsely as I sat up and rubbed the back of my neck with a wince.

The room was bare and white and I didn't recognise it at all. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, thinking back to where I was before I was asleep. I was with Hermione. She was holding me and telling me she loved me and kissing me lightly with her soft lips...

No, I shook some sense into my head, that was the dream I was having while I was asleep. Hermione thought I was a rude, ungrateful prat. She thought I was moody and unreasonable and probably going crazy. She also thought I was involved in something dodgy and that made me feel a little sick inside. For everything we'd been through she'd never doubted my morals before.

I thought harder, when was the moment I fell asleep? Where was I? What was the last thing I remembered doing?

"Dad." I repeated dumbly to myself.

I looked around and my breath picked up speed. I was with my dad and now I was who knows where without him. Where was he? What had happened to him?

"Dad!" I yelled as I got to my feet and flung myself at one of the bare white walls to try and figure out how I'd got inside in the first place.

I slammed my hand against the wall and stepped back. I remembered now. The potion was wearing off. My head was messing with me and dad was going to take me home. Somebody had been there, somebody behind me and then...

"Shit." I hissed through my teeth before closing my eyes and turning on the spot to try and Dissapparate.

That was an incredibly painful mistake.

I leaned against the white wall and held my ringing head in my hands. This was bad. This was really bad. I looked up at the ceiling for some kind of weak point but there was nothing. I stamped down on the floor but it held firm. There was no window or door or anything. I was in a blank white cell with no way out and my body was going through potion withdrawal.

The healers had warned me about this. On particularly rough days, days when I was more stressed or active than usual, I had been advised to take a top up dose of the potion. What if that was why I was drawing a blank about what had happened exactly?

Take care of me, that voice had said they were going to take care of me, this place looked clean and sterile and not one bit like a holding cell or Wormtail's hideout. I forced my eyes closed and scrunched up my face to concentrate.

"This...this couldn't be like before. This can't be like that time in St Mungo's when I was in the ward one second and in the grounds the next."

I shook my head and opened my eyes. I'd climbed out of a window several floors up and made a run for it without remembering. What if I'd lost it again and dad had put me away?

"But it wasn't dad!" I hissed, "He stepped out. He was gonna take me home."

My face fell and my knees buckled.

"Oh Godric, mum!"

My mum was going to go spare.

If I was taken by Wormtail's cronies she was going to go off her nut. If I had been admitted to the hopeless nutter ward she'd find out dad was keeping secrets from her. She'd find out I was still on the potion. She'd find out I never really got better.

Then everybody would know.

Everybody.

They'd all know something was wrong with me, that I wasn't normal, Harry would find out. Hermione would hear about it and start reading books and then I'd be a project and she wouldn't want to...well she didn't want to anyway did she?

There was a little flicker of something in my head, just at the front like somebody snapping their fingers in front of my face and taking me out of my internal self destruction. I blinked and stood up straight again. I took a deep breath in and out and ran both hands roughly through my hair.

"I just did that to myself," I said aloud, calming myself down, "none of that is happening. I'm running away with that crap again and it's not true. I'm okay."

I nodded, shocking myself that I believed what I was saying.

"I can outsmart these people. I can beat them. I can do this."

I cleared my throat and stepped into the centre of the room and began to picture all the different ways I could defend myself if someone was to suddenly Apparate behind me, beside me, before me. I grew a little more confident.

"Yeah, don't need potion, they're just mood swings. It's just stress and if I keep my head together and keep breathing slowly I will stay in control of this."

I took another deep, calming breath in and out.

I was taking my control back.


	28. Chapter 28 Hermione

**Chapter Twenty Eight**

**by The Steppy One**

He thought I was working with Wormtail. He thought I was his sidekick, trying one last time to destroy the peace in the Wizarding world. That's what he'd said.

He'd been irate, there was no other word for it. He thought I was trying to harm Harry and, well, me, and he was going to do everything in his power to stop it. When he couldn't help he got even angrier. I was scared, more so than I ever had been before.

Then I had kissed him. He had me pinned to the floor and I couldn't help it. I had to try and let him know that it really was me, but that one act sealed my fate. I should have known what it would do.

To him, Hermione Granger was the person who had kissed him this morning and told him she really liked him, only to look at him with disgust when he had kissed her back hours later. She had then run up to him in the street apologising for things that hadn't happened yet and then accused him of going to a loan shark for money. And she hadn't worked out that he was still suffering side effects from the war. Smartest witch of her age? Don't make me laugh.

After all that, all that rubbish I'd- she'd- _we'd _thrown at him here he was, shouting and screaming, trying to get his way out of this situation because he thought someone was threatening me. I didn't deserve him; I wasn't good enough for him. No one was.

_Crack – Wump_

Oh please no! He _knows_ he can't apparate out of there! Why is he trying again?

_Crack – Wump_

I winced as I imagined the pain he must be feeling. I had to do something; I was trying to keep him safe, if he kept that up, there was a possibility he'd do some permanent damage.

I waved my wand at the door and walked through it. He was trying to get off the floor but he looked in so much pain.

'What's going on?' I asked, already knowing the answer to the question.

He lunged towards me, obviously very dazed from his attempts to escape. He collapsed into the wall and then blacked out on the floor. I sank to my knees next to him and felt his forehead with my hand. He was boiling hot, probably from getting himself worked up and I didn't properly understand the side effects of trying to apparate out of a room protected with anti-apparition wards.

I cooled him with a stream of air from my wand, it was all I could do. I didn't know if there was any damage to his brain from the failed apparition, and I couldn't do anything about it even if there was. Whilst he was unconscious it might do more harm than good to try and fix anything.

And then of course there was that potion of his. The one he hadn't told me about, the one I presumed he hadn't told Harry about and the one I knew he hadn't told Molly about. Arthur knew though and that both angered and comforted me. It was good he had his dad to go to, to talk about what he was going through, although I don't know how much about PTS Arthur would know. It was only comparable with a Wizarding illness and not exactly alike, so I had a feeling both Ron and Arthur were as in the dark about it as the other.

It annoyed me that Ron had been able to talk to Arthur and not me. I thought he could tell me anything. I know I can tell him anything, well everything except one thing, and that just happened to be the most important thing I had to tell him.

He caught me by surprise by shifting position. He was waking up.

I knew he'd be in agonising pain so I performed a cushioning charm around his upper body. Not ideal, but it was something.

He winced as he opened his eyes the smallest amount possible and the light hit them. His protest to the pain escaped him in the quietest way.

'Shh, don't move!' I said in as soothing voice as I could manage.

He started to sit up but thought better of it. I saw the pain etched in his face.

'Oh shit!' he mumbled.

'Lie still,' I demanded of him. I sighed. 'Oh Ron, what did you do to yourself? Why can't you just trust me and stay hidden?'

That's all I wanted him to do. To feel he could trust me with anything and to keep himself safe. The first one I probably didn't deserve but the second one, he certainly did. He didn't deserve to die, especially by the hand of that traitor.

'Let me heal your head Ron,' I said, still quiet so to not make his headache any worse.

'My-nee,' he mumbled.

'Hold still, I couldn't fix you up properly when you were unconscious, it wouldn't have been safe.'

He didn't protest so I waved my wand and took his pain away. Well most of it, I didn't want to do anything to severe, I didn't know how his potion would react with the spells.

''S better.'

I breathed a sigh of relief, glad I hadn't done any damage with my healing spells. He closed his eyes and I leant over him. I took in every one of his freckles. Every frown line in his forehead as he thought about whatever he was thinking about.

Even though I knew how he had reacted to me kissing him the last time I was in here, I couldn't help but lower my lips to his and kiss him. After a few seconds I felt him kiss me back and I relaxed.

He knew. He knew it was really me. Everything would be okay. He'd stay here with me and I'd keep him safe until this whole thing was over. Wormtail wouldn't kill him because Ron wouldn't be in Diagon Alley to attack. Everything was going to turn out okay. I'd done it.

I pulled back from him and smiled.

'I'm so glad you finally believe it's me. I love you. Oh Ron you scared me so much I didn't think I'd be able to sto-'

'Believe you?' he said.

What he did next caught me totally by surprise. He flipped us over so he was pinning me down. I caught the look of hatred in his eyes and fear consumed me.

No, this couldn't happen. I wouldn't let it. He was going to stay here with me!

I tried to move out from under him but he was holding me too tightly. I felt tiny in comparison to him, I really had no chance. He was taking my wand from me. I tightened my grip.

'Ron no, look at me, please look at me!' I pleaded with him. I had to make him understand. His life depended on it.

'You made me fuck things up with my best friend you evil bitch!'

_No you haven't!_ I screamed, but it was only inside my head. My mouth had failed to form the words. Instead I managed to choke out 'Ron! Please don't!'

He pulled the wand from my hand and flicked it at my face.

'_Silencio!_'

I screamed and screamed and screamed at him, but nothing happened. That was it; he'd taken away my only chance of stopping him leaving. My words were all I had. Now I no longer had them.

He pushed himself up and I scrambled after him, trying to grab onto any part of him to make him stop.

He turned around pointed my wand at me again.

'_Stupefy!_' he bellowed.

I managed to bring my arm up to take the spell. As much as the effects of the spell were reduced, they still took their toll.

I watched, helpless, as he left the room. I slumped onto the floor, my brain fuzzy and the room swimming in front of me. The fact that it was white didn't help me. I had no solid objects to focus on and try and bring my balance back to normal.

I rolled onto my back, working out that I'd know where I was in relation to the rest of the room if I was there.

As I did something dug into my spine. I winced slightly, still trying to concentrate on getting my head straight.

I shifted, trying to remove whatever it was from my spine but it just dug in deeper.

What was it? It wasn't my wand, for some reason I didn't have that, it would be in my hand if I did.

I closed my eyes and a wand appeared in my mind's eye, then it turned into two wands, both dancing in front of me. But then one of them changed, they were different now. Different but I knew the shape and look of them both. They came nearer towards me and I looked at the one on the right. I knew it was mine, and I watched as it faded into nothing. The left one came closer still and I saw the letter engraved at the bottom of the handle.

RBW.

Ronald Bilius Weasley.

I had Ron's wand.

My head still spinning I rolled onto my front and fumbled with my robes, desperately trying to grab the piece of wood that had been causing me discomfort.

After what seemed like hours I managed to take a grab a hold of it and wrench my hand free of my robes.

'En…' I tried to concentrate at pointing the wand at my head and saying the spell with enough conviction for it to work.

'En…_enervate!_'

My head became clear and I blinked, making sure I was stable enough to stand.

I scrabbled at my left sleeve, my eyes desperately searching for my watch.

'Oh dear God, no.'

I had exactly seven minutes before Ron would be pronounced dead.

* * *

My breath was ragged as I sprinted towards the flames and screams. My eyes stared at every movement around me, trying to find any sign of Ron. I knew where he would be soon. I just prayed to God that he wasn't there yet.

I ran through the street and didn't care who I was sending spells at. I stunned Death Eaters at first glance and even the odd person I knew was on our side, I didn't care though, no one was going to stop me from getting to Ron in time.

All I had to do was find him and apparate him out of here. That was it, it was easy. _I could do this_.

Then, suddenly, there he was. The foul, evil little rat was stood in front of me. This was my chance. Without thinking I threw my wand arm forward and opened my mouth to scream the killing curse at him. I didn't care what happened to me. All that mattered was that Wormtail wasn't able to kill my Ron.

But he was too fast. My brain seemed to switch off all the sound around me as I saw Ron sprint out from behind a building and force Wormtail's wand arm off in another direction.

'_No!_' I whimpered, tears threatening to fall from my eyes. This couldn't be happening.

'Little Ronald, always standing in the way of greatness aren't you boy?' the traitor snarled.

My blood boiled. I stepped closer to them, brandishing Ron's wand, waiting to get a clear shot at Wormtail, but I couldn't; not without hitting Ron.

They fought, struggling with each other, Ron hexed Wormtail and the street was spattered with blood, thankfully not Ron's.

Hexes flew around me, Ron and Wormtail continued to struggle and I continued to watch, helpless as I tried to find an instant when I had a shot of Wormtail so I could put an end to all of this.

Seconds, minutes passed. I knew I was running out of time.

Then my moment came. Ron had jut forced something down Wormtail's throat and he was distracted. I raised my wand and aimed at the traitor.

'_Stupefy!_' I screamed, and I watched wide-eyed as my spell went straight for him, cutting through the air and aiming perfectly for his head.

But then they both fell to the ground, together, and my spell missed him by a long way.

'No!' I said breathlessly.

I watched as Ron scrabbled over to Wormtail, and the fighting started again. I half-heartedly raised my wand, waiting for a second chance to hex him.

People appeared around me. Out of them all I only recognised Tonks and Kingsley.

'Hold your fire, we can't hit the Weasley boy!'

'No!' I screamed. This was what happened last time. I pushed forwards but one of the Aurors I didn't know stopped me from moving forward. I fought him, bringing my knuckles to his jaw without even realising it, but that only made him hold onto me tighter.

Wormtail was transforming into something, nothing recognisable as a normal form and I still struggled against my captor.

Then there was the light.

Ron slumped to the ground.

'_NO! RON! NO!'_

My throat burned and tears streamed down my face.

I watched as his eyes closed and he lay, motionless on the street.

I went limp in the Auror's arms and his grip lessened.

I heard footsteps and managed to tear my eyes from Ron.

I saw myself running towards us. I knew she'd seen me, she'd understood what had been happening all day.

I wrenched myself free of the Auror and walked backwards, away from the group of people trying to work out if Ron was dead or not.

Someone bumped into me as I continued to walk slowly backwards, retreating down the street. It was Arthur; he was about to find his son, lying in the middle of the street, dead.

Dead.

I apparated to our safe house and locked myself in the white room. I fell down in front of the piece of wall I knew so well and lifted the concealment charm on a certain part of it.

When I saw the collection of dots, I screamed, and I sobbed.

My fingers touched the markings and I concentrated on them.

'I'm…s…sorry Ron…I couldn't d-do it. It's all my f…fault. I l…love you!'

I collapsed on the floor and curled up, still screaming, still sobbing and realising that I knew all along I wouldn't be able to do it. I had seen my attempt first hand; I was just too stupid to see that I couldn't change the past.

Ron was no longer living.

_My_ Ron was dead.

* * *

_A/N from The Steppy One - So, I'm going to go and prepare myself for a linching! See you later! _

_A/N from Solstice Muse - *stands before my little sis to fend off the furious mob*_

_Back...Back I say! There's one more chapter and you trust the two of us remember?_

_The next and final chapters will be written by both of us, Hermione by Steppy and Ron by Solstice.  
_


	29. Chapter 29 Hermione and Ron

**Chapter Twenty Nine**

**by The Steppy One and Solstice Muse**

_So this is part one of the finale. The finale has been written by both Solstice Muse and The Steppy One. Solstice's parts are bolded and Steppy's are not. She starts us off._

* * *

I felt like stopping her. I wanted to march over to her and tell her it wasn't worth it. I'd failed, and so would she. But I didn't. I watched as she strode quickly out of the Ministry, determination burning in her eyes, willing to do anything to save her Ron, my Ron.

However, I knew wasn't going to stop her before the thought had fully formed in my mind. I wasn't going to stop her, because no one had stopped me. That was they way it worked, wasn't it?

How could I have forgotten that? Whatever I thought I'd changed had ultimately either added to the inevitable, or just not changed it all. I'd never know which it was. I'd never know if it was my fault Ron was dead, or whether it was going to happen regardless. I didn't know, and I could never know.

I moved out from my hiding place and walked the same path I had over 24 hours ago. It suddenly hit me how tired I was, I couldn't even count the hours I'd been awake for.

I pushed the door open quietly and slipped inside the room. It was exactly as I remembered it.

Of course it was, I'd only just left.

I walked up to where Ron was lying and looked at his face. There was no fringe covering his eyes, I'd brushed it out of them before I left. Knowing he would hate it, I pushed it back to where it was.

Much better, that's the way he liked it.

I cleared my throat, the noise sounded loud to me after the lack of noise in the Ministry.

'Ron, I'm…I'm sorry, I couldn't do it. I tried, but I couldn't help you. I failed you.'

The tears fell from my eyes silently and landed on the silk material covering him from the shoulders down.

'I just want you to know that I love you. I always have, and I always will.'

I leant forward and gave him one final kiss. I hated how cold he felt, but I ignored it as I kissed him. It would be the last time I would.

My tears fell onto his cheeks, so much so they made tracks down his face and down his jaw.

I pulled back and gently wiped them off.

I stood up and sat on the chair that was next to where he was lying. My eyes closed as I sat down. I'd sleep for a bit, and then face a future without Ron. Just sleep for a few hours.

Just sleep.

* * *

I opened my eyes and yawned. My face was tear stained, I could feel the breeze against the tracks they had made down my cheeks.

I looked over at Ron and then dropped my gaze, I couldn't bear to look at him, but I couldn't bear not to.

'So, what do I d-?'

What was that?

Did he move?

The candlelight flickered over his hair and I sighed. That was all it had been, the candle light flickering on his hair. I watched as it did so for another minute, before finding my eyelids heavy again.

I opened them once more and the candle light made my heart hammer again. The shadows really made it look like he was moving.

'Hermione, you're tired, exhausted, you need sleep.'

I leant forward and propped my head on my knees and held my head in my hands.

I would sleep, I would, but I just needed to stay here for a bit longer. Just a few more minutes.

A few more minutes with Ron.

* * *

Something brushed up against my hand; I guessed it was my robe.

I opened my eyes and expected to see the black fabric of my sleeve touching the side of my hand, but my brow furrowed when it wasn't black. It was paler, much paler. There was creases in it and there was a few darker spots to it. I knew that pattern.

I followed the form from my hand onto the marble plinth he was lying on.

Ron's arm was out from under the silk that covered him and was bent at the elbow.

I was confused, there was nothing that would make his arm fall off the plinth. I took his hand and gently moved it back next to his body.

I took his elbow in my other hand and placed it next to his side.

The cloth covering him had moved too, so I took it and pulled it back up his body. I looked at his face and blinked. I'm sure my heart stopped beating.

Ron's eyes were open, and they were looking directly at me.

* * *

**I was really cold.**

I was laying on something hard and uncomfortable and I was really, really cold.

The inside of my head felt like it did the first time I got drunk with Harry and Seamus in the dormitory. No, it felt worse than that, it felt just like that time I accidentally overdosed on my potion and dad found me on the bathroom floor. I woke up with his fingers down my throat and then spent half an hour trying to hold my own head up, then fifteen minutes trying to focus and breathe properly, then I'd come back to myself and stared at my dad and asked him why he was cuddling me on the bathroom floor.

That was the only time in my whole life my dad hit me. He shook me by the shoulders and shouted into my face and then he slapped me, not hard at all but he slapped me, and then he started crying and I realised that he thought I'd done it on purpose, that I'd tried to kill myself.

I gave a feeble shudder, from the memory and the cold, and tried to open my eyes.

Bugger.

Somebody had glued my eyelids together.

I tried to shift my weight to rub my face and the sleep out of my eyes but my arm was a dead weight and I could only get it to twitch. This was just like my potion overdose. I tried to concentrate and thought back.

That bastard Wormtail...fighting and curses everywhere...handfuls of stuff from Fred and George's shop...two Hermiones...two Hermiones!

It was that memory that tore my eyes wide open.

She'd been there twice. She'd been the person ruining my day. She was Polyjuiced and...no, she was Hermione, she was my Hermione. Both of them were.

I remembered the time turner.

Something awful must have happened and she went back. Something to do with me. Maybe the first time round...maybe the first time...

I searched for her with my eyes. What the hell was this place? It wasn't St Mungo's and it wasn't my room at the Burrow. There were candles and flowers and that smelly smoke stuff they light at funerals.

I began to have trouble breathing.

Oh shit.

They thought I was dead.

They thought I was dead and they were going to bury me.

I couldn't move and I couldn't talk and they were going to bloody bury me!

I gritted my teeth and put all my energy into turning my head. Then I saw her, just the one of her, asleep in a chair with swollen red eyes and her bushy brown hair shrouding most of her peaceful face. I tried to call out to her but my throat was dry and my brain didn't seem to be sending the right signals to the right body parts. Instead of opening my mouth my shoulder twitched and the sheet that covered me slipped back a little. I shivered against the cool air and the cold slab of marble beneath me.

I could do this, I had to do this, I had to let her know.

I decided to start slowly. I focused my mind on moving one finger, then all of them, and then I pulled my hand along the surface of the marble slab with nothing more than the grip of my fingerprints. My palm dragged along slowly until my middle finger curled over the edge of the slab and I paused to brace myself for channelling a huge burst of energy into that one finger.

With one pathetically weak grunt I pushed away from the edge of the marble and my arm dropped off the side of the slab and brushed against her hand. For the longest second of my life she didn't move. Then her eyes opened.

She struggled to focus her sleepy bloodshot eyes on my limp hand before lifting it and setting it back at my side. Her tired eyes travelled further up my body and she fussed over the silky sheet that had shifted with my efforts to move. I could have laughed if I had the energy, can't let the corpse get cold can we Hermione? Then her eyes moved upwards to my face.

At last, at long last, she was looking at me.

* * *

This had to be a dream. This wasn't right, Ron was dead. They'd pronounced him dead. Trained Healers who had been Healing for years had pronounced him dead.

No, I was seeing this because I'm exhausted and I'm now dreaming.

I wanted to close my eyes but I couldn't tear them away from his. I felt a tear fall down my cheek and I let go of his hand. I took a step back and finally looked away from him. I closed my eyes and sat back down on the chair.

I sighed. 'Merlin Hermione, either wake up or stop this now.'

I saw his eyes again in my mind's eye and sobbed.

'Stop this…n…now.'

* * *

**Oh fuck she didn't believe it, I was getting put in the ground, I was getting buried and... sweet Merlin what if they cremate me?**

I'm going to be burned alive!

"No," I yelped against a throat like coarse sandpaper.

She looked at me again, her face streaming with tears, and I opened my mouth to try to talk properly but I could only wheeze.

"Herm..."

* * *

His eyes were frantic, there was no other way to describe them. They were wide and scared and… still beautiful.

Why are you doing this to yourself, Hermione? Why are you letting yourself watch him suffer?

Anger surged through me, anger at myself and the way I'd made him upset all day long. I balled my hands into fists and stamped my foot on the ground. The pain reverberated through my leg and up through my skull.

I sucked in a breath and stayed still trying not to give my body any other reason to send pain through my skull.

Wait… Pain?  
But if you're dreaming then you don't-

I snapped my head back to look at him. He was breathing heavily and looked like he was trying to talk. I took a step forward and grabbed his hand.

He squeezed it.

'Ron?'

* * *

**She was touching me. She was talking to me. I wasn't going to be nailed into a coffin and left to rot.**

"Herm-mah..."

Why couldn't I speak? Why was I so fucking tired? What did that traitor do to me to...?

I remembered, I remembered falling and the glass bottle smashing as I landed on it. It pierced my side and...and...

"P..." I tried to tell her but speech was like a razor blaze carving up my throat and I winced, "P... Potion!"

* * *

I didn't know what to do. He was alive, and looked like he was in severe pain.

He spoke again.

'Potion!'

Potion? What potion. His PTS potion?

'I know Ron, I know about the potion you take. Do you need it? Is that what you want?'

He closed his eyes. I panicked.

'Ron! Stay awake for me please, stay awake.'

His eyes opened and looked at me again. I gripped his hand tighter and he reciprocated the gesture. I leant over him undid my earlier work; I brushed his fringe out of his eyes. I took a deep breath; he didn't need me panicking on top of everything else, even though I felt like doing just that.

'It's okay Ron, I'm here. Take your time. What do you need?'

* * *

**I needed to sleep.**

I needed to go to sleep for a week until my throat stopped hurting and my head stopped spinning and my limbs started moving again. I drew in as deep a breath as I could manage and gripped her hand tightly. If I kept holding tightly she'd know I wasn't dead. I couldn't let them think I was dead again.

That was when it hit me.

My mum thought I was dead.

I made a choking sound and my eyes flooded with tears that burned so much it was as if they were scalding me.

"What is it?" Hermione was saying, looking terrified and cupping my face in her free hand, "Where does it hurt? Tell me how to help you Ron, please. Please, you can't leave me again!"

* * *

A tear escaped his eye which in turn set me off. What did this mean? Was he in so much pain he couldn't speak anymore? Was he fighting a losing battle?

No. I wouldn't accept that.

'Ron, open your eyes.'

He didn't, but his grip grew even tighter round my hand.

'Ronald Weasley open your eyes now!'

Frustration surged through me, at myself mainly for not being able to help him, but at him too. He was stronger than this. I knew he was.

'Now Ron! You have not survived a war and then come back from the bloody dead to give up now! All I'm asking you to do is open your eyes and look at me. Come on Ron, I know you can do it. I believe in you.'

After everything I put him through today. I believed in his strength of character more than ever. He just had to find it in himself.

* * *

**Maybe if I whispered. Maybe whispering wouldn't hurt. I decided to give it a go.**

"Living death."

I blinked my eyes and stared at her. She was pleading me to stay with her; she must've thought I was dying for real.

"What was that?" she asked as she leaned in close, her hair brushing up against my face and her grip on my hand increasing to such a degree I felt sure my hand was broken.

"Living death...draught," I whispered into the mass of hair that obscured my vision, "fell on...bottle smashed."

I thought I heard her gasp, that must've meant she understood, she'd help me now. She'd make me stronger again.

* * *

I saw it again in my head, the whole thing. Ron fell onto the ground, and there it was, the faint sound of glass smashing and the slightest of looks of discomfort on Ron's face. Then Wormtail's wand flashed and Ron…died.

In every sense of the word he died. His spells disintegrated, his body cooled and his heart slowed to a ridiculous pace, but it preserved him. It kept him 'alive'.

'Living Death,' I whispered.

My grip had loosened on his hand and I felt him grasp it tighter for a second, as if confirming what I had said.

'It was just a…a potion!' I said, so relieved.

But then fear coursed through me once again.

'Oh God! You're other potion! They've reacted! That's why you're like this! What can I do? What can I do Ron? There must be a spell that counters the effects or wipes one of them from your system. There has to be. Please Ron, let me help you!'

* * *

**Why was she asking me? I didn't bloody know! She was supposed to be the clever one after all.**

I tied to whisper again but I just coughed into the side of her head. She got up and perched on the edge of the plinth before lifting my heavy body up onto her lap and rubbing my chest.

"Please tell me what to do. Tell me how to help you Ron. I'm...I'm lost!"

I dry swallowed and winced before scrunching up my face to speak aloud no matter how badly it hurt.

"Water!"

She blinked at me before shaking herself out of her frozen panic and flicking her wand at my face and sending a slow trickle of water into my mouth. It was only when I started drinking that I realised just how thirsty I was. Being dead must dehydrate a person's body.

I drank and drank and drank. My throat was being soothed and the inside of me felt like it was waking up.

"Slowly, careful Ron, not too much." Hermione pulled the wand from my lips and wiped my chin while I gulped and tried to lean forward.

"More!"

"When you tell me how to make you stronger," she said with determination.

"My dad," I said, leaning into her heavily, "had a spell...makes me stronger."

* * *

Strengthening spells, come on Hermione think! Strengthening spells…

A few came to mind, but if they were the normal, run-of-the-mill spells then surely Ron would know?

He coughed and winced. I lowered the tip of my wand to his lips and water flowed from it. He closed his eyes as he gulped at it.

'Please slow down Ron, choking is the last thing I need you doing.'

His mouth twitched and I caught the smallest glimpses of a smile.

'Ron, I can't think of anything other than what you know. You have to try and remember so I can help you. I'm sorry, I can't do it on my own. I really am sorry.'

I pulled back a little from him as my tears fell into his hair.

'I'm so sorry Ron.'

* * *

**"S...S'okay," I said after swallowing and licking my lips.**

I tried to give her a smile. I could wait, she could go and get somebody and they'd think of a way to help me out.

She leaned over and very tenderly kissed my lips. I blinked back at her and wondered if we'd ever be on the same page as far as kissing was concerned. I sighed and closed my eyes, relaxing into her embrace.

"Oh no you don't! You stay awake Ron Weasley. You stay with me."

I nodded and made a humming sound.

"Lemme think," I mumbled before my head dropped onto her shoulder.

I felt her stiffen, I could tell she was panicked and frightened about letting me fall back into unconsciousness but I had to shut down a little to think properly.

My dad was crying. He said he was sorry for hitting me. He made me promise never to leave him.

"Poor dad," I sighed into Hermione's hair, "thinks 'm gone."

"He'll know soon enough, he'll know," Hermione said as she kissed the top of my head.

I took another deep breath and thought some more.

* * *

I hated it when he closed his eyes. If I had my way he'd never close them again.

'Ron?' I asked him quietly.

His eyelids fluttered. 'Mmmhmm.'

'Please, I know you're tired-'

'You can go…go and get dad…anyone to help. Don't mind.'

'I know your game Ron, you aren't getting out of thinking that easily! I'm going nowhere, I did not travel through time to try and save you only to leave you in this state once you woke your lazy arse up!'

He smiled and for the first time in a long time, I did too.

* * *

**"Bully!" I said with a lazy chuckle.**

She giggled before hugging me to her and shuddering slightly.

"I can't let you go and I know you can do this. You can do anything. You can come back from the dead."

I didn't reply. I breathed deeply and audibly as I went back into the bathroom that day, that day with my dad, that day I got careless.

Dad was trying to help me up but I was a dead weight and his bones were too old. He grabbed the potion bottle and read the label. He was muttering and swearing before smiling at me and ruffling my hair and telling me it wasn't my fault. He winked at me and then frowned thoughtfully.

He pointed his wand at my heart and said a spell.

He said... He said... He said...

"Servo quod tribuo vires!"

I opened my eyes and hoped that she'd heard me.

* * *

'Servo quod tribuo vires? Is that right Ron? Did I hear right?'

I hoped beyond all hope that I had heard right.

He nodded and managed a mumbled 'yes,' in response.

I shuddered with nerves, now was not the time to get anything wrong. This had to be done right.

I held my wand over him and concentrated, eyes closed.

'Servo quod tribuo vires!' I said firmly.

I opened my eyes and held my breath.

'Ron?'


	30. Chapter 30 Ron and Hermione

**Chapter Thirty**

**by The Steppy One and Solstice Muse**

_Part two of the finale. Solstice's parts are bolded and Steppy's are not. Solstice starts us off._

* * *

**It was like a bucket of cold water had been thrown over me, only dry. I shuddered and sat up, running shaky hands through my hair and laughing nervously.**

**It was like an adrenaline rush, no energy to full energy in less than a second, and I tried to ride out the rush.**

**"Oh God are you okay?" Hermione was looking at me with her 'I think I've failed my exams' look.**

**"Just...buzzing!" I grinned.**

**"Oh Ron!" she said, her face falling as she flung herself at me and hugged me tightly.**

**"Sorry, I didn't plan to fake my death or anything, I just fell funny. I'm really so-"**

**She was kissing me.**

* * *

There was nothing else I could do. I'd wasted enough time doing nothing as far as Ron was concerned. By some strange twist of fate I had my second chance. I wasn't going to waste it.

He relaxed and instinctively I held on to him tighter. I wasn't going to let him go for a long time. I started to relax when he moved his arms around my waist and held me in his arms. I don't think I had ever felt so happy.

Anything he threw at me as reasons why we couldn't do this I'd hex into oblivion.

_I'm thinking far too much._

* * *

**I was savouring the kiss while struggling not to rush it. All I wanted to do was push into her mouth and kiss her as deeply as I could. There was the fear that she might push me away again. There was the fear that she was just giving me what she thought I needed because I had just been through a hell of a day. There was the fear that this wasn't what she wanted.**

**What if I wasn't what she wanted?**

**I wove my fingers through her mass of brown hair and tried to soften the kiss but as soon as I pulled back I dove back in again.**

* * *

His hands were in my hair, tangling it and getting his long fingers caught in it, and I loved every movement he made. I felt his tongue on my lips and I brought the tip of my tongue to meet his. I knew he was smiling as he started exploring my mouth with his tongue, and I couldn't help but smile back.

I tried to ignore my need to breathe, I didn't want this to stop, not for anything, but I had to. I pulled back a fraction but held his forehead to mine, letting him know I wasn't letting him go, not yet.

We were breathing heavily and taking on board much needed oxygen.

'I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not. Not at all,' I said quietly.

I pulled back a bit so I could look at his eyes. I kissed him on the nose before pulling him back towards me.

'Ron, before I do anything else I have to tell you something.'

I breathed deeply to calm myself.

'I…I love you. I'm in love with you Ron.'

There, I'd said it, and this time he'd definitely heard.

* * *

**"What?" I blinked.**

**"I said I...love you."**

**"What?" I said again with a frown.**

**She laughed weakly and took my hand with both of hers, kissing the back of it and holding it in her lap.**

**"I. Love. You."**

**"Wh-" I began before she pushed her lips against mine and spoke into my mouth.**

**"Believe me, I was confused before and I didn't realise what the kiss really meant until later. I love you Ron."**

**I mouthed silently for a moment before turning my head a little and clearing my throat. I looked back at her, right into her eyes.**

**"You too, I do too, love you."**

**She giggled into my face but I suddenly felt like I didn't deserve this.**

* * *

I looked at him, smiling like a mad woman. But his face fell and he looked at our still clasped hands.

'I don't deserve you,' he mumbled.

'What?' I asked.

As much as I tried to ignore it, a slight panic rose up inside me.

He shrugged. 'I don't deserve you.'

He took his hands from mine. I instantly grabbed both of his. He was going nowhere.

'Don't you dare say things like that Ron! If anyone here doesn't deserve the other, it's me who doesn't deserve you. I put you through so much yesterday and yet you're still here in front of me, telling me you love me.'

He stroked my hands with his thumbs and took a deep breath. He looked at me and opened him mouth to speak.

**

* * *

**

**"I should have told you."**

**"And I should have told you. We were both idiots but it's okay now," she was smiling again.**

**I shook my head and averted my eyes.**

**"I should have told you about...I've been..." I told myself to be a man and met her eyes again, "I didn't get better. I lied to you and Harry, I lied to everyone. I didn't get better.**

**She stroked my cheek and leaned in a little closer.**

**"I should have noticed," she whispered.**

**"No," I shook my head, "I was unreasonable and snappy and I told Harry he was lucky his bloody parents were dead and I was stuck! I had to choose between losing my mind or losing my temper and I should have just told you."**

**"Why didn't you?" Hermione rubbed her thumb gently against my cheek.**

**"I was ashamed of myself."**

* * *

'You have no reason to be ashamed of yourself, Ron. After everything you've been through, everything you had to do its no wonder that's it's affecting you.'

My gaze dropped to the plinth we were sat on. It was cold and hard and really uncomfortable. Of all the places to have this conversation and we were having it here. In the depths of the Ministry of Magic in a morgue. I closed my eyes.

'You went through exactly the same as me, so did Harry, he went through more and he's fine.'

Images flashed through my mind. Bits from the war, the white room, Ron stopping Wormtail from cursing me, Ron lying on the floor, apparently dead.

I couldn't stop them, one by one, but Ron was waiting for reassurance from me.

'After ev…everything I put you…through…today… I'm sur-'

I had to breathe, I had to calm down.

'Hermione! What's wrong?'

I shook my head, this would pass. It would, it would pass.

* * *

**She was freaking out. I'd freaked her out. I wondered how much she really knew, how much my dad had told her after I was supposed to have died.**

**"I was never going to hurt myself. I never meant to overdo it that time in the bathroom, I was distracted and took two doses and then I got all confused and I somehow took more. I didn't mean to Hermione."**

**"Not...don't talk about bad things anymore, not now." Hermione said shakily, "You're back. You came back."**

**I tried to hug her to keep her from shaking.**

**"You came back to me!" she sobbed and crumpled into my shoulder.**

**"I'll always come back to you. Even if you didn't want me I'd still be there."**

**"But you were cold!" She screamed into my shoulder.**

**"Am I cold now?"**

**She shook her head.**

**"You were dead and I'd spent your last day upsetting you and now you're here and...and..."**

**"Hermione don't."**

**"And I'll never forget what it felt like to lose you."**

* * *

He pulled me closer to him.

'Shh Hermione, come on, calm down. You haven't lost me. I told you I'm here.'

'I saw you die twice! I couldn't stop it. I tried…I tried Ron, I tried so hard, but everything was the same. I couldn't save you. I promised you I…I would do it if it was the last thing I did…but I _couldn't! I failed you!_'

He rubbed my back and held me tighter. I gripped his…his…whatever they'd put him in, tightly.

'Hermione look at me.'

I buried my head into his shoulder.

He somehow manoeuvred me away from him, firmly but gently and forced my chin up with his hand.

'Look at me,' he said again.

I reluctantly lifted my eyes to him, my breath still hitching from the crying.

'You'll never fail me. Never. You don't know how to fail. This whole thing was different.'

I appreciated his words. But I'd always feel the guilt. That would never go away.

* * *

**"Everything I do, all the times I try to be better, the reason I kept the stress thing and the potion a secret was because I wanted to be better for you. I want to get better. I wanted to be okay again before I tried to be with you like I wanted to."**

**She sniffed and stared at me.**

**"I don't want a super-human perfect Ron. I want you."**

**"Oh thanks!" I snorted and she laughed.**

**"I meant that I want to help you, I like helping you. I liked helping you with your homework and seeing how proud of yourself you were when you did well. I liked helping you feel more confident and watching you walk with your head held high. I want to help you handle this whole PTS problem, no...support you while you do this all by yourself and watch you pour that potion down the sink."**

* * *

His eyes widened in slight fear. 'But I can't! I need it Hermione, you haven't seen me flip out and go AWOL!'

I put my finger on his lip to shush him.

'No, I didn't mean today or tomorrow or the day after that, I meant when you were ready to. When you'd worked through everything and fought this thing head on like I know you can. I want to be there to watch you come through it…if you want me there.'

I held my breath, I'd told him, in not the most obvious way, what I wanted. I thought that that was what he wanted too, but I knew how much this PTS thing was affecting him, and I half understood. The easy thing would be to hide away so we wouldn't be affected by it too. That's what he'd done so far, he'd been protecting those who he knew cared for him, hopefully now he'd let us, _me,_ support him.

I still wasn't breathing.

* * *

**She wanted me.**

**Hermione wanted me, she really did.**

**I didn't know how to talk to her anymore. I didn't know what the right thing to say was. She hadn't exhaled since she finished her little speech and I was drawing a blank. We were both as useless as each other!**

**I laughed.**

**Hermione looked confused as she let the breath she was holding deflate her.**

**"What's so funny?"**

**"You..." I began before shaking my head in disbelief, "I'm a mess and you don't care. You really don't care. You want to be with me anyway. That's what you're saying right; you want to be with me?"**

* * *

I punched him half heartedly on the shoulder. He'd answered my question with another question, that wasn't allowed, that was my trick!

'Ah!' he exclaimed.

'You know that's what I want, Ron Weasley! Now for your own safety will you please tell me what _you_ want? Because if you keep me waiting much longer I'll…I'll…'

'You'll what?' he asked with a grin.

I couldn't help but smile again.

'Nothing,' I said. 'Well, I won't do nothing, but I won't let you go until you tell me what it is. Please.'

I took both my hands in his, and waited, again.

* * *

**"I could only be with you. I always wanted you but I didn't want you to compromise with me. I could never ask you to settle for m-"**

**She was kissing me again. **

**Tears fell down her cheeks but her lips formed the shape of a smile and she leaned into me and we kissed with clashing teeth and bumping noses and tits squashing against my chest and the horrific realisation that I wasn't wearing anything below the waist...**

**...and it was great!**

* * *

It was rushed and it was frantic but I didn't care, I was kissing _my_ Ron and I would savour every minute of it. We both wanted it, and we both knew the other one wanted it to. Finally we could-

_Stop thinking Hermione!_

Or at the very least think about what he's doing.

His hands were in my hair again and then they were pressing me against him and his tongue was exploring every bit of my mouth, and then I got to explore him with mine. The muscles in his back stiffened slightly under my hands.

I pulled back a fraction and mumbled 'what?' between kisses but then kissed him again before he had the chance to reply.

'Nothing,' he mumbled between more kisses.

I pulled back and he moaned.

'What?' I asked with a grin?'

His eyes dropped to what was covering him and then he looked up at the ceiling, avoiding my gaze.

Realisation hit me and I snorted in a very undignified way.

'Sorry!' I said, trying to straighten my face. Er, maybe we should-'

He cut me off by kissing me again. Well, I wasn't going to complain.

* * *

**We weren't going to have our first time together, oh come on...our first time with anyone ever, be on a marble slab in a mortuary. I honestly didn't know if I'd been embalmed or not!**

**Soon the kisses turned into hugging and the hugs melted into the two of us just lying on the plinth with our arms around each other. I was tired and groggy from all the potions and Hermione had lived two days in one without any sleep. But we couldn't sleep just yet, we had to find my family and tell them.**

**We had to get to Harry before he destroyed himself over every time he ever called me a prat and vowed to kill everybody who'd even looked at me disdainfully.**

**We had to find a Healer and get me checked out.**

**What we really had to do was start this new life of ours we'd put on hold when the war ended.**

**It was as if, from the day we met on that train, we'd been playing the parts of the heroes, we were beginning our quest on page one and when You-Know-Who was defeated the book was closed and we all stood around wondering what we were supposed to do with ourselves.**

**Nobody was writing our future in the stars...nobody was turning those pages or dictating the plot.**

**It was down to us now.**

**Me and my Hermione.**

* * *

I was holding him. He was warm, and he was breathing and he was… he was happy.

And I was happy. No that's a lie, I was more than happy. I was with Ron, there was nothing else I needed.

I was cold though, and I shivered. Ron ran his hand up my arm, but after a few seconds he stopped. He was tired, we both were, and we needed to get out of here. We were in a morgue for Merlin's sake!

'Ron,' I mumbled, 'as much as I don't want this to stop-'

'We're lying on a marble plinth, in a morgue, freezing cold and we really need to get out of here.'

I smiled. 'Exactly.

I kissed him lightly and we sat up and stood up off the plinth. I handed him my, _his_ wand and he smiled before transfiguring the silk sheet and whatever it was they'd put him in, into more substantial clothes.

I looked at him, stood in his makeshift pair of trousers and jumper, and my heart melted. He was beautiful.

He held out his hand for me to take and nodded towards the door. We didn't say anything as we walked out of the room, words could wait, we'd said what we needed to.

He stopped as the brighter light from the torches along the wall hit his eyes. I watched as he took a deep breath, knowing that what we had to go and do would be draining, for both of us. But he took a deep breath and his chin rose. I'd never loved him more. We walked hand in hand through the Ministry, towards a life I thought I'd never get to leave. But I was going to, I was going to live a life with Ron, that was they way it would be.

Me and my Ron.

* * *

_A/N - from The Steppy One - *cries because it's over* Just want to say thank to Solstice for coming up with this idea and letting me play with her and her bunny... *gigglesnort* love ya mate *hugs*_

_A/N - from Solstice Muse - See! I told you to trust us! This was so much fun and as other attempts I have made to co-write have gone on to prove, working with me is very nearly impossible (apparently I'm too fast *rolls eyes*) so my Steppy sis is a very unique girl._

_We will both be posting new fic about our favourite characters seperately again so please put Steppy on author alert if you'd like to follow her writing (and her Hermiones)_

_Thanks to all for the reviews and to the couple of people very early on who left Ron-hating messages that had nothing to do with the fic...we both hope you become Twilight fans and leave decent male lead characters alone in future! *lol*_


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